Steubenville
Sure, you might not have flying reindeer in your garage. But don’t let a bit of snow on the roads keep you from enjoying some holiday travel this season.
Many destinations around Ohio are planning fun, colorful Yuletide celebrations for visitors hearty enough to brave the elements for a festive day trip or overnight visit.
Tell Tchaikovsky the news: More than 100 life-size nutcrackers are on display at Fort Steuben Park for the Third Annual Steubenville Nutcracker Village and Advent Market.
Many of the handpainted nutcrackers represent well-known characters or people, including Dr. Who, Clark Kent and Mother Teresa. (Imagine ballet.) The
nutcrackers are displayed under tunnels of sparkling lights filled with holiday music.
Decorated trees, a model railroad and old-fashioned toys and gifts — including, of course, nutcrackers — are part of the Christmas Wonderland display at the Exhibit Hall in the Fort Steuben Visitors Center, where youngsters can also write letters to Santa and take photos by the Holiday Horse.
The downtown, weekend Advent Market features artisans offering specialty crafts and baked goods in holiday chalets set around a 30-foot Christmas tree. Local musicians, bands and church and school choirs will provide live music. Visitors can also see a nativity scene and the historic First Federal Land Office decorated for a 19thcentury Christmas.
An original musical, “The Wooden Hearts Follies,” will be performed on Sunday afternoons through Dec. 17. The production is based on the familiar melodies of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” with characters from Steubenville’s own Nutcracker Village. (I’d consider a Dr. Who/Mother Teresa
to be a Christmas miracle. Just sayin’.)
For more information, call the Fort Steuben Visitor Center at 1-866-301-1787 or visit www.steubenvillenut crackervillage.com.
Cambridge
No humbug: More life-size figures — 180 of them — are at the center of the Dickens Victorian Village celebration in Cambridge.
The figures, handmade mannequins each with an individually sculpted face, are dressed in authentic vintage clothing and arranged in 94 different vignettes around downtown Cambridge.
Classic Dickens “A Christmas Carol” characters such as Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim are joined by traditional, colorful figures from Victorian London society like lamplighters, chimney sweeps, street peddlers and carolers who actually “sing” classic carols. Father Christmas is in attendance, as is Bob Cratchit, the ghost of Jacob Marley and that ultimate Victorian, Queen Victoria herself.
Visitors to Cambridge should also stop in at the Dickens Welcome Center and Curiosity Shoppe on Steubenville Avenue, where costumed volunteers share stories and photos about the creation of the Dickens display. The center has a gift shop and visitors can take a tour of the oldest home in Cambridge, built in 1805.
The Guernsey County Courthouse also hosts a light show from 5:30 to 9 p.m. nightly with twinkling lights synchronized with holiday music. The display features more than 30,000 lights with four different shows each hour, each lasting 8 to 12 minutes and featuring children’s, traditional and contemporary Christmas music.
For more information, call 740-421-4956 or visit www. dickensvictorianvillage.com.
Coshocton
The historic canal settlement of Roscoe Village will take visitors to Christmas 1830 during Roscoe Christmas tours offered each Thursday through Saturday in December.
The guided, 90-minute tours begin at 1 p.m. each day, with additional daytime tours on Dec. 2 and Dec. 9. Guests will visit living-history buildings decorated for Christmas and learn about 1830s canal-era history and the holiday traditions of the time.
On Dec. 2 and Dec. 9, the Coshocton Visitors Bureau and Roscoe Village Business Association will also host Christmas candlelighting ceremonies at a 30-foot tree near the main entrance to Roscoe Village.
After the ceremonies, a special lantern tour of the village will be offered. Advance registration is required.
During a visit, guests can peruse the quaint shops of Roscoe Village, eat at one of the village restaurants, hear strolling carolers and try a horse-drawn carriage ride.
For more information, call the Roscoe Village Visitor Center at 1-800-877-1830 or visit roscoevillage.com.
Zoar
The historic village in Tuscarawas County, established in 1817 as a utopian community by a German separatist sect, will host the Christmas in Zoar celebration on Dec. 2 and 3.
A candlelight church service will be held at the historic Zoar Meeting House on Dec. 2 under the auspices of the Zoar United Church of Christ, followed by a treelighting ceremony in the historic Zoar Garden.
Each day includes musical entertainment, a juried craft show, village tours, horse-drawn carriage rides and visits with the traditional German gift-bringers Belsnickle and Kristkind.
For more information, call 330-874-3011 or visit historiczoarvillage.com.
Archibold
The museum and livinghistory site Sauder Village will host 90-minute holiday lantern tours on Dec. 2, 8 and 9. This year’s tours offer guests an interactive look at American Christmas traditions of the 1920s.
Costumed guides will lead visitors through the 1928 Grime Homestead to help decorate the family tree in the parlor and frost cookies in the family kitchen. Visitors can also compile a wish list with the help of a 1922 Montgomery Ward catalog and play with the latest 1920s games and toys.
Guests can also help act out “The Night Before Christmas” at the District 16 Schoolhouse, sing 1920s carols at historic St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and make a Christmas novelty in the Tin Shop.
The Sauder Village Gift Shop, Lauber’s General Store and the Herb Shop will be open for holiday shopping. And the adjacent Sauder Heritage Inn will offer special overnight lodging packages for tour participants.
Registration is required for the tours. For more information, call 1-800-590-9755 or visit www.saudervillage.org.