The City of Temple is going to help you out by offering a “Bells & Bows” Christmas celebration in the downtown from Dec. 1-6.
The week will include live entertainment, arts and crafts, food, fun and even snow. Event organizers are forecasting snow on the plaza in the form of a 30-foot-tall snow slide. The snow slide will be from 2-9 p.m. Dec 1 in the parking lot of the Temple Visitors Center. Admission is $2.
Also on Dec. 1, the annual tree lighting will be at 6:15 p.m. at the Temple Municipal Building.
At 6:30 p.m. the lighted Christmas parade will wind through downtown Temple. Mary Alice Marshall will serve as grand marshall for the parade. The theme of this year’s parade is also “Bells & Bows.”
The SPJST Home Office will have a free Christmas Open House at 520 N. Main St. in Temple following the Christmas parade. Activities will include horse drawn carriage rides, Christmas caroling by the Temple High Polyfoniks, Puny and Tinker the clowns and displays by the Temple Police and Fire Departments. Mary Frances Chupick will present a first-person review of her book “Invitation to Cat Spring” dressed in character. The Czech Heritage Museum will also feature live displays.
Visitors can view the entries into the TISD Christmas Tree Contest, and visit the Christmas Market from 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 2-5 and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Dec. 6.
There will also be performances at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 2-5 by local artists at the Santa Fe Depot’s gazebo. The Texas Country Gentlemen will perform Dec. 2, the Temple College Adult and Student Show Choirs will perform Dec. 3, the Thornton Elementary Choir will perform Dec. 4 and the Kennedy-Powell Elementary Choir will perform Dec. 5.
For more information about the “Bells & Bows” Christmas Celebration, contact Nancy Glover at 298-5418 or call the Chamber at 773-2105.
The week of Dec. 2-5, the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum will open from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. and the Christmas Model train exhibit will run 6-9 p.m.
The museum in partnership with Central Texas Area Model Railroaders will host the Christmas model train exhibit on the second floor of the museum. The holiday exhibit will include a Polar Express train traveling through a snow covered Christmas village filled with people and a ski mountain. The model railroad exhibit will also be open Dec. 7, 13, 14 and 19-21.
The jolly man himself, Santa Claus, will arrive from the North Pole by train at 10 a.m. Dec 6. His train will arrive at the Santa Fe Depot and while he is on layover there will be opportunity to take a picture with Santa sitting beside the Christmas tree for $5. Additional activities will include Christmas crafts and popcorn concessions. Santa will depart by train at 1 p.m.
“The Polar Express” will be shown in the lobby of the Depot at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 6. Admission is $10 per person and includes popcorn and a beverage.
For information, call 298-5172.
rrenfrow@temple-telegram.com
