Holiday Traditions
Does your area do anything special for Christmas? Tell us about it!
Central North Carolina has a lot, in a typical year. Not so much this year. Starting just before Thanksgiving, Greensboro puts on a very high quality amateur version of the Wizard of Oz in a beautifully restored old theater. High Point usually puts on a truly professional version of Dickens' Christmas Carol. Winston-Salem's NC School of the Arts performs the Nutcracker ballet, with a live orchestra. Just outside of Winston-Salem, Tanglewood Park has one of the largest Christmas lights displays in the South. Old Salem, the Moravian village, has tons of traditional Christmas activities. Everybody around here eats Moravian sugar cake and Moravian sugar cookies this time of year, and has a Moravian star hanging up somewhere. It's like we're all temporarily fake Moravians for a while, just like everybody is sort of fake Irish on St. Patrick's Day.
For those willing to drive a little further, Charlotte does a singing Christmas tree every year; a green plywood tree on stage where five levels of singers can be seated. The girl at the top is dressed like an angel. Last but not least, Asheville's Grove Park Inn has a huge gingerbread house competition. You can build any kind of house or scene, as long as it's more than half gingerbread, and everything is edible. The three top finalists are flown to New York for Thanksgiving Day where the winner is announced on ABC's Good Morning America. Then they go back to Asheville to be on display until Christmas.
Central North Carolina has a lot, in a typical year. Not so much this year. Starting just before Thanksgiving, Greensboro puts on a very high quality amateur version of the Wizard of Oz in a beautifully restored old theater. High Point usually puts on a truly professional version of Dickens' Christmas Carol. Winston-Salem's NC School of the Arts performs the Nutcracker ballet, with a live orchestra. Just outside of Winston-Salem, Tanglewood Park has one of the largest Christmas lights displays in the South. Old Salem, the Moravian village, has tons of traditional Christmas activities. Everybody around here eats Moravian sugar cake and Moravian sugar cookies this time of year, and has a Moravian star hanging up somewhere. It's like we're all temporarily fake Moravians for a while, just like everybody is sort of fake Irish on St. Patrick's Day.
For those willing to drive a little further, Charlotte does a singing Christmas tree every year; a green plywood tree on stage where five levels of singers can be seated. The girl at the top is dressed like an angel. Last but not least, Asheville's Grove Park Inn has a huge gingerbread house competition. You can build any kind of house or scene, as long as it's more than half gingerbread, and everything is edible. The three top finalists are flown to New York for Thanksgiving Day where the winner is announced on ABC's Good Morning America. Then they go back to Asheville to be on display until Christmas.
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