Morning Call: Christmas season is crucial to Bethlehem, which is asking tourists to please come

This holiday season may be unlike any other, but in Bethlehem, not even the coronavirus pandemic can upend the cheer.

Tourists can still find lighted trees, Moravian stars and Christmas putzes on display. They can grab a carriage ride, a hot chocolate or a walking tour through the city’s nearly 280-year history. As the star atop South Mountain signals, Christmas is on in the Christmas City.

That isn’t to say, however, that it’s unaffected by the pandemic and the precautions that go with it. Or that business owners aren’t worried about what they can salvage as the coronavirus surges.

Tony Gentile, who makes a holiday visit to Bethlehem every year, noticed an immediate difference on Black Friday — fewer people.

Not that Main Street wasn’t busy with tourists and shoppers, just not as busy as Gentile, of Salisbury Township, is accustomed to seeing it. He was glad for the familiar seasonal sights and believes others who headed to Main Street for the unofficial kickoff to the holiday season were as well.

“I think people are looking for a sense of normalcy,” he said.

Information from the Downtown Bethlehem Association bears that out. Some businesses reported record sales in the first three weekends in November, said association Manager Tammy Wendling.

She attributes that to Christmas festivities starting earlier and the city extending outdoor dining through the end of December.

“It helps not having people so clustered and coming down all in one shot on Small Business Saturday, or having everyone in town the week before Christmas trying to do last minute shopping,” she said.

Huts on Main, a mini-holiday village that typically opens downtown on Black Friday, set up shop the first week in November. And Christkindlmarkt, the annual German-style holiday market on the Southside, opened six weeks earlier than usual to keep spirits up but crowds down. The market, which is open through Sunday, normally operates in a heated tent but this year was open-air.

Temperatures couldn’t have been better on Black Friday, typically the busiest shopping day of the year for brick-and-mortar stores. And Deirdre Nonnemacher of Hand Made Jewelry at the Huts on Main was pleased with the traffic, estimating about 300 people had browsed by midafternoon.

“I think people just want to be out and buying presents,” she said. “I’ve been seeing a lot of families.”

Michele Sandt of Artistic Outdoors, which sells fresh holiday greens, wasn’t sure what to expect or even if she should open, given that whatever she doesn’t sell is a loss. But she was surprised by the number of orders she received, especially from people who live outside the area.

“It’s nice to see people out and walking around in downtown Bethlehem,” she said.

Armand Allegrucci of Scranton was among the out-of-towners on Main Street last week.

“We had a good time,” he said, while he, his wife and some friends waited outside Hotel Bethlehem for a dinner table. “We did what we had to do with the masks, but life goes on. You can’t stop living.”

Masks are a rule for holiday tourists in Bethlehem, as they are throughout Pennsylvania. And so far, mask and social distancing rules have not kept tourists from signing up for guided walking tours downtown, said Charlene Donchez Mowers, president of Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites.

The tours run nearly every day, with four each on Thursdays through Sundays, and many have been sold out, Donchez Mowers said. New this year, guests can get a peek inside the Gemeinhaus, Bethlehem’s oldest structure. And a glimpse of what the first known decorated Christmas tree in the U.S. there might have looked like. Also new are the illuminated buildings and festivities in the Colonial Industrial Quarter. And the Greens Sale and Market at Burnside Plantation.

“We are trying to do our part and create a special holiday,” Donchez Mowers said.

But many people will be missing out on the festivities, which run until the end of the year. Donchez Mowers noted that the bus tours Historic Bethlehem runs four days a week and the bus groups that come into town independently for guided tours aren’t running this year because of the pandemic. And that means lots of out-of-town visitors, including many senior citizens, won’t be coming.

Their absence translates to lost dollars for Historic Bethlehem, which like many nonprofits has been hit hard by the pandemic. And it means less money for businesses, which also will affect the city coffers. Bethlehem is facing a deficit of about $2 million next year because of pandemic shortfalls and increasing retirement costs, and is considering a 5% tax increase to help fill that hole.

The holidays are always important for retailers because profits made then set businesses up for next year, Wendling, of the Downtown Bethlehem Association, noted. But this year, there is even more riding on the season, given that business owners lost so much in forced closures earlier in the year. That’s why Bethlehem is hoping tourists come — spread out and in fewer numbers. But that they don’t cross the trip off their list.

“We are the Christmas City,” Wendling said, “and bringing people downtown is crucial.”

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