With the Christmas season in full swing, there are plenty of festive things to do this weekend.
Lehighton’s Hometown Vintage Christmas
Hosted by the Lehighton Downtown Initiative, the third annual event will take over Saturday at the Lehighton Park in Carbon County, which has 168 trees decorated by local businesses and organizations.
Three roads around the park will be closed to provide space for roughly 60 vendors and other planned activities. Horse wagon rides will be given for free.
Bambi Elsasser is community operations director for the Lehighton Downtown Initiative.
“We're going to have a selfie Christmas village down by the bank,” she said. “We have a whole bunch of blow ups and inflatables, and everybody can take selfies or group photos. It's going to be really cute.”
Other festivities will include glass blowing demonstrations, crafts and games for kids, food trucks and Santa.
A ‘Candy Cane Lane’ will encourage people to stop in local businesses, which are decked out for the 2024 Holiday Storefront Decorating Contest.
Lehighton’s Hometown Vintage Christmas
Saturday, Dec. 14
12 to 6 p.m.
Lehighton Park
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
At the Little Theatre in Wilkes-Barre, a cast of actors and one foley artist hope to transport their audience to a 1940s radio station, where voice actors perform a radio version of "It’s a Wonderful Life."
The Little Theatre’s stage has transformed into the studio of WBFR in New York, where the cast plays multiple roles to bring the story of George Bailey to life and Daniel Beeferman sits on stage, surrounded by the eclectic collection of props he needs to create hundreds of sound effects.
David Parmalee is the director of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at the theater. He says the cast has added extra layers to their voice actor characters that will play out in the background.
“We’re using our imaginations for every aspect of it, except the script,” Parmalee said.
Beeferman’s role supplies the sound for the audience’s imagination. He’d never done foley or sound effect work like this before this show, and found or constructed all of the props he uses.
He sits toward the front of the stage, surrounded by props like shoes, a bucket of water, windchimes, a rotary phone, and a “creakbox” made to simulate the sound of a creaky door.
“My favorite is probably the air raid siren,” he said. “We have a wind machine, which is actually a bingo raffle rolling, and you put a piece of nylon over it…and it sounds like wind.”
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.
Sunday at 3 p.m.
Little Theater of Wilkes-Barre
537 N Main St., Wilkes-Barre
Other events:
- The Hazleton Punk Rock Wicked Winter Flea Market will be held Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. at Tattoo Corner PA. Handmade and vintage items will be sold and there will be live music. Admission and parking are free.
- Weatherly Recreation Committee's Christmas in the Park 2024 is scheduled for Sunday from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Horse drawn trolley rides and a sing-a-long with Elsa and Ana, the princesses from Frozen, are planned.
- A Holiday Market at Lace Village in Scranton will be held Saturday and Sunday. The family-friendly event will offer photos with Santa, live entertainment and local vendors at the new residential development.
