Making Magical Holiday Memories in Historic Bethlehem

By Jill Waldbieser,

Photos by Michael Robinson

Moravians founded the city on Christmas Eve 1741, and ever since, Bethlehem has been a special and unique place to celebrate the holidays. From Moravian masses to the lighting of the star, traditions steeped in history abound in the Christmas City. One of those traditions, the Historic Bethlehem Holiday House Tour, is a perennial favorite, drawing crowds to witness the most elegant decorations of the season and revel in the nostalgia of Christmases past. Two Church Street homes on last year’s tour show exactly why, in more than 250 years, the magic of the season hasn’t dimmed in the slightest.

 

In Traditional Moravian Style
Stroll through the center of town this time of year, and white Moravian candles dot every window. As far as lightshows go, it’s nothing spectacular, but for Ellen Johnson, the simplicity is the appeal. “I love that it’s not overdone,” she says. “It reclaims a sense of old-time Christmases. That spirit is still alive in Bethlehem.”

Her passion for history is what sold Johnson on her 1870s Victorian, a highlight on the house tour. “Being in touch with the past gives me a thrill,” she says. “I’m a sucker for old houses.” She owned as many as seven of them in various locations in the U.S. and Canada before she settled in Bethlehem 12 years ago. It took her eight more years to find the perfect house. “I looked at a number of wonderful houses, but this was the first one that really spoke to me,” she says.

While original architectural details including the ornately carved wooden staircase banister and raised-panel wainscoting in the entry were intact, Johnson had to make substantial renovations. But she did so with the spirit of the house in mind. She had the original tiger oak and heart pine floors restored, and updated the kitchen, where the sink was “peeling like a bad sunburn,” with a vintage look. “People can’t tell that it’s even been restored,” she says.

Although Johnson readily admits that the three-story Victorian is far too big for just her and her Sheltie, Cady, she’s had no problem filling it with antiques and art that she’s collected on her travels. There are family heirlooms mixed with country pieces from her former homes in Vermont and Maine, and artwork she collected from Nova Scotia and right here in the Lehigh Valley. A bookcase full of antique cameras are a tribute both to her own passion for photography, and to a former tenant of the house, turn-of-the-century photographer Harry B. Eggert. The one constant that runs through the eclectic furnishings is lots and lots of color. “That’s one thing I really do love,” Johnson says.

Her holiday decorating is equally eclectic. For the tour, Johnson decked her halls with four different themed trees. In the sunroom (which was converted from the original side porch), a carved wooden tree is hung with Novia Scotia folk art. A live tree in the dining room sported a nature motif with ornaments in the shape of animals, birds, and nests. In the living room, a bay window framed a tree whose branches hung with glittering vintage Christmas balls. Live greens decorated the mantel, stairway, and table centerpieces, most courtesy of Dale Schaffer at Elysian Fields Specialty Florals in Bethlehem, who volunteered his services for the tour.

But of course, when it came to Christmas lights, Johnson stuck with simple, understated luminaries and candles, in traditional Moravian style. To her, an old-fashioned holiday will always be the best kind.

19th Century Roots
Michael and Annette Schweder have lived in Bethlehem their whole lives, jumping from one historic home to the next. “We both have a great love of history,” Michael says. The Schweders’ current residence, the one that landed on the house tour, is their fourth such undertaking, an 1860s Victorian that was once occupied by the founder of the Bethlehem Symphony Orchestra—who, coincidentally, also designed the town’s first Christmas “putz,” or miniature Pennsylvania-Dutch village, a tradition that continues today.

During the Great Depression, the huge Victorian was converted into apartments. It was only restored to a single-family home in 2001, several years before the Schweders purchased the 23-room, 8-bath house. Jokes Michael, “We wanted to downsize.”

Although it can be tough to find enough candles to fill the house’s many windows—at last count, they totaled 57—all that extra room comes in handy around the holidays, when the Schweders welcome as many as 25 friends and relatives to their home for the festivities. “I like Thanksgiving, my wife likes Christmas, so we sort of roll it all into one big celebration,” Michael says.

With so many square feet to cover, decorating starts early. On the day before Thanksgiving, candles go in the windows. Later in December comes the tree. “With the high ceilings we have, we get an enormous 9 or 10-foot tree for one of the front rooms each year,” says Michael. It’s trimmed with handmade ornaments that Annette has fashioned from dough or fabric. A talented seamstress, she’s also sewn all the quilts in the house.

For the holiday meal, the deep red dining room was formally and festively set with gold dishes and a centerpiece of live greens designed by Dale Schaffer of Elysian Fields. “We have a traditional meal: turkey and all the fixings, homemade pies,” says Michael. In all, it’s a holiday tradition true to the house’s nineteenth-century roots.