Celebrate The Holidays in Wayne

The two-day community and family celebration begins Friday evening, December 3, with festive caroling and horsedrawn carriage rides along North and South Wayne avenues, and culminates with the lighting of the Christmas Tree at the Wayne Train Station. The festivities continue with a parade on Saturday morning, December 4. Jolly Old Santa will make his way down Lancaster Avenue from the Wayne Acme on a firetruck to the porch of the Wayne Hotel. Wide-eyed children and their families will gather on the porch to visit with Santa, while enjoying fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate compliments of the hotel. Toys for Tots will be on the porch of Wayne Hotel Saturday morning and you are invited to contribute by bring a new, unwrapped toy when visiting with Santa.

Bring your loved ones to celebrate at the Wayne Hotel’s Old- Fashioned Christmas!

For more information on Wayne Hotel’s Old-Fashioned Christmas please visit http://www.waynechristmas.com.

For more information on the Wayne Hotel, please contact David Brennan, General Manager at 610.687.5000

5:30 to 6:30 Strolling Carolers on North Wayne Avenue

5:30 to 7:15 Craft a Personalized Ornament at Radnor Fire House

5:30 to 7:30 Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides on South Wayne Avenue and Runnymede Avenue

7:00 to 7:30 Valley Forge Military Academy Chorale and Radnor High School Cheerleaders at Wayne Train Station

7:30 Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at Wayne Train Station with Cathy Gandolfo of 6 ABC Action News

4:00 to 8:00pm Special Holiday Shopping Hours

Enjoy Free Holiday Movies at Clearview’s Anthony Wayne Theatre

Santa Parade Saturday, December 4th 10 AM starting at the ACME featuring Radnor High School Marching Band & VFMA Field Music Group and ending at Wayne Hotel.

Visit with Santa on the Porch of Wayne Hotel until 11:30 AM .

Enjoy a Free Family Holiday Matinee at Clearview’s Anthony Wayne Theatre

Winter Holiday Parade in West Chester

Thanksgiving has come and gone and now it’s time to focus on winter holidays. This is my favorite time of year and my family and I like to celebrate to the fullest. We have our Christmas tree, wreath and new holiday decorations at home waiting to adorn the house. I have purchased ribbon and wrapping paper and there are even a few gifts hidden about the house. We have plans to decorate our tree next weekend and to start bringing out the rest of the green and red this week. We are now even considering getting another tree if could just figure out where to put it. Now it’s time to get into the holiday spirit with some fun filled family events!

One of the best ways to kick off the holidays, and one of our personal favorite traditions, is The MARS Drinks Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration. This year the parade is celebrating its 31st year and has grown from a small town gathering with a few classic cars and local groups marching Market and Gay Streets to an all out major event with Channel 10 newscasters MCing and roughly 30,000 attendees expected.

There is a full weekend of event planned for December 2nd-5th including crafts for the family, lots of choral performances, breakfast with Santa for the kiddies and the 2nd Annual Jingle Elf Run. The tree lighting ceremony starts off the parade, the main event, at 7:30pm on Friday, December 3rd (location to be decided) and will take just one trip around the course lasting until roughly 9pm.

Participants this year include Jason Castro (American Idol Finalist), Adam Joseph (NBC10), Karen Rogers (NBC10), The Margera Family and The Lone Ranger with his horse Silver. There will be fifteen marching bands, five marching musical groups, eleven special performance groups, forty two specialty groups, eight sponsored floats and numerous dignitaries. No wonder this thing is going to be almost two hours long!

Join me and my family (and much of Chester County, it seems!) this Friday, December 3rd, in West Chester. We can all start off Holiday Season 2010 right!