I know it's a little early to be talking about Christmas!

A group of Downtown merchants have put together a plan to make our Christmas season in our Downtown really special this year.

The season will be called "A Dickens of a Christmas" in Downtown New Bern, Where Everything Old is New Again".

Some of the highlights will be

Downtown Illumination - each Friday between Thanksgiving and Christmas we will have luminaries on the sidewalks in the Business District between 5 and 8 pm. The Trolley will have illumination tours leaving from the front of the Chelsea at 5:30 and 7:00 pm, $10, reservations suggested. The trolley will tour the Downtown and the Historic Residential District to see the lights. It's always so beautiful!

Each Friday Illumination will have a theme relating to Dickens, Fizziwigs Party - an evening of celebration to kick off the season, The Ghost of Christmas Present(s) - a family evening of shopping, Tiny Tim's Christmas - promotions for children to shop, and Ebenzeer Goes Shopping - focus on an evening for men to shop.

Carol Tokarski and I will be doing the artwork for "A Christmas Carol" which will be told on large cards 80 x 60" which will be in 20 windows throughout the Downtown. A map will show you where the cards are and list the events for the season as well as our sponsors.

So far we have the following sponsors at $250 Carolina Creations, Mitchell Hardware, MJs Raw Bar and Grill, Four C's, Port City Java, The Aerie Bed & Breakfast, The Pepsi Store, Branch's, The Chelsea Restaurant, Tryon Palace, Craven County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and at $100 Swiss Bear Downtown Redevelopment Assn and the Accidental Artist. Sponsorships are available from $50 to $2500, email janet@carolinacreations.com for the details!

The new Santa days will be Fri, Sat & Sun and during those days we will have a Toys for Tots drop off at the Santa House and a food drive for RCS.

In addition to these plans we can't forget all the other things going on in our historic district
- Centuries of Celebrations at Tryon Palace
- the Candlelight Tours at Tryon Palace
- the Sculpture Show at the Bank of the Arts
- the hand made ornament show and the Original Tree hung with original artwork that costs $60 or less at Carolina Creations
- Open House at Downtown Shops
- the lighting of the Community Christmas Tree at the Sheraton
- a new exciting event sponsored by Christ Church Community Christmas Caroling where we'll block off the 300 block of Pollock Street and sing carols - just like New York City!
- The Holly and Ivy Tour
- B&B Tour and Open House
- the Living Nativity at Centenery
- The Messiah
- the Drive Through Nativity at St Mary's
- the Cookie Walk
- the Festival of Trees
- Christmas Parade
- the Christmas Flotilla
- The Symphony
- Scrooge at the Civic Theatre
- Paws on Parade Pet Parade

Wow!!

Book mark our calendar page on the Carolina Creations website to see the entire calendar, we'll update it as we get new info. Calendar Page click here.