Frolic and play the Hendersonville way this holiday season during the Home for the Holidays celebration.
Each year, this Blue Ridge Mountain town unwraps a collection of yuletide events from mid-November through New Year’s Eve, providing dozens of opportunities for making memories.
The unofficial kickoff is the day after Thanksgiving (Nov. 24) with the Holiday Tree Lighting. Santa arrives at the Historic Courthouse to illuminate the town tree and all the lights along Main Street. The evening includes carriage rides, Christmas choirs, music from Peggy Ratusz & Friends Band, and sweet treats. Santa makes a Hollywood-style entrance, emerging from a limo onto a red carpet amid flashing cameras and search lights beaming across the sky.
The following Friday night (Dec. 1), Main Street again comes alive with an Old-Fashioned Christmas. Stores and galleries extend their hours to serve holiday treats, and choirs and carolers stroll the sidewalks. Santa visits with kids on the courthouse plaza, while carriage rides return to Main Street. The llamas of Ellaberry Llama Farm dress in their holiday finest for festive photo ops.
Other Home for the Holidays events include a Christmas Farmers Market and Christmas parade (Dec. 2); Candlelight Christmas Tours at Historic Johnson Farm (Dec. 8-9); and Holly Jolly Train Rides with a pop-up market from Mountain Fresh Orchards on Main Street (Dec. 16).
Season-long activities include the beloved musical revue, “A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas,” taking center stage for 31 performances from Nov. 24-Dec. 21, and the Peppermint Bear Scavenger Hunt (Nov. 24-Dec. 23) leading people on a fun-filled downtown hunt to find Peppermint’s lost cubs, which are hiding in downtown businesses.
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New to the scavenger hunt this year are frosty treats from two businesses located on the Hendersonville Ice Cream Trail – Celtic Creamery and sweetFrog Premium Frozen Yogurt.
Also new this year is a nightly drive-thru light show at Marked Tree Vineyard (Nov. 25-Dec. 31). Additionally, the winery hosts holiday music events on Thursday and Saturday evenings, with performances by local musicians and the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra.
“We like to say you can find us at the ‘intersection of merry and bright’ because there are so many holiday memories to be made here,” says Michelle Owens, Hendersonville’s tourism director. “Shopping, carriage rides, twinkling lights, peppermint bears and evergreens are all around, but most of all, it’s the spirit of the season that you will feel throughout town.”
The holiday season wraps up with the family-oriented New Year’s Eve Apple Rise. Hendersonville pays tribute to its status as North Carolina’s Apple Capital by raising a giant apple above the plaza of the Historic Courthouse. The free event features New Year’s Eve swag, a DJ dance party, games and hot cocoa, all leading up to a kid-friendly apple rise countdown at 7 p.m.
For more info about Hendersonville’s Home for the Holidays, call (828) 693-9708 or go to www.VisitHendersonvilleNC.org/home-for-the-holidays.