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David Lamb
Home for the Holidays Entry One
A decorated house on Washington Street, Newtown PA. First entry in the Newtown Historic Association 'Home for the Holidays' 2020 photo contest.
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By Bob Waite
Shops are lit up with holiday displays in the windows, people are busy shopping, choirs are practicing and everything starts to change, especially in Newtown, a town known for its community spirit and sense of history. And with Christmas coming, people in this historic town, are planning to have a very Merry Christmas. This is more so than ever before, because Newtown is experiencing a wave of optimism and the community seems more closely knit than ever before.
Ashara Shapiro, owner of ArtWRKD, feels it. She says, “Newtown is pretty exciting now. I think Newtown has had this resurgence and rebirth.” Being a member of The Newtown Experience and the Newtown Historic Association, she is involved with several of the events. This is the second year in a row that she was chairman of the Market Day event, and she is very involved with the upcoming holiday celebrations.
The Newtown Experience, made of small businesses in the area, is responsible for the annual tree lighting, which will be on Washington Street in the parking lot of the Newtown Fire Company on December 1, 2023. This is a public display of the joy that Christmas brings to the Newtown community.
One of the intriguing holiday traditions that Ashara is involved with is the Newtown Cocktail Trail on November 18, which is also hosted by The Newtown Experience to support the Newtown Theatre. The trail begins at The Temperance House (5 South State Street) where you’ll pick up a commemorative glass and a trail “passport.” The passport will list each stop on the trail and any promotions the shops are offering that day.
Ashara says, “I bookend State Street. When we do collaborative events in the theater with artwork, we'll either start at the theater and end with me or start with me and end the theater. And then people get to kind of walk through town and have dinner and drinks and we build that time in to kind of support the businesses in the historic district.”
Ashara is preparing her own business for the holidays. She is planning more solo and group exhibitions. She now has two spaces for ArtWRKD. Her newest space opened in September and she is doing revolving exhibitions. She plans to open an expressive boutique for the holidays in both spaces. In the boutique she’ll have clothing designed by artisan fashion designers (Ashara herself is a wearable artist), jewelry designed by artists, small gifts and plans to have about 20 artists represented in both spaces. ArtWRKD is located at 126-128 S State St #300, Newtown, PA. For more information, visit www.artwrkd.com.
This year the Newtown Historic Association will be giving its 60th Holiday House Tour. Barry Fleck, president of the association, says, “The House tour is an opportunity for the public to see some of the older homes in the borough. And it’s really a step back in time since many of the homes on the tour have been here since the late 1700s and early 1800s”
In the tour this year there are five private homes on the tour and Barry Fleck’s house is one of them. He says, “The houses have to be decorated by the first Saturday, which is not far behind Thanksgiving. So, you literally have to have it decorated at Thanksgiving. This all requires a lot from the homeowners who open their homes, and we're very fortunate to have members of the community who are willing to share their homes with the community.”
It is a big event. People going on the tour, which is on Saturday December 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. This year there are five private homes on the tour and open houses at the Newtown Fire Association, Paxson Hall Friends Village, Newtown Library Company, Half Moon Inn, Callahan Research Center, Samuel Phillips House, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and Newtown Presbyterian Church.
Barry says, “It is the biggest fundraiser for the Newtown Historic Association. There could be a thousand people coming out for this tour.” Volunteers are always needed. It is truly a community event that requires over 125 community member volunteers to put on this event. This event provides significant financial contribution to the NHA which allows us to support our mission of Protecting and Preserving the Historic significance of Newtown for future generations to enjoy. It also provides us with an opportunity to show case the Historic significance of all Newtown and why we are referred to as Historic Newtown”.
For more information and tickets for the 60th Holiday House Tour, visit www.newtownhistoric.org/events/annual-holiday-open-house-tour.
The McCaffrey’s Newtown Holiday Parade is a festive event hosted by the Newtown Business Association. On Sunday December 3,the parade promptly kicks off at 2 p.m. from South State Street at the Stocking Works. It then continues north to Washington Avenue and makes a left turn, then turns right onto Sycamore Street, ending at the corner of Sycamore St. and Durham Road. Parade announcers will be located at Goodnoe Corner next to the Green Parrot. This event brings droves of people from all over Bucks County, and it is a huge event. The president of the business association Dave Marcolla says, “There are typically around 1800 participants within the parade itself. We have the Mummers, different types of dance schools and local community performers.”
The Newtown business Association doesn’t have its own float. Dave explains, “The members of Newtown Business Association typically do floats and we hold contests for the floats that have the best holiday themes. We always say we're the organizers of the parade. We’re all over the place running the parade that day. We're announcing the parade. We have a judging stand area where we have dignitaries that judge the floats. As a business association we stay behind the scenes. But besides being the president of the association, I also have my own real estate brokerage, so I'll have a float in the parade for my brokerage.”
All floats have to have a holiday theme. And no float can have a Santa Claus, because there is only one Santa Claus.
Newtown has historic charm, a booming economy, lots of great restaurants, many interesting shops and galleries and is the perfect town to visit during the Christmas season. The tree lighting, the house tour and the parade are only the icing on the cake. Newtown has something that makes their Christmases always Merry and that is a community where the people are committed to each other and all who visit.