Experience Family Fun and Folklife Demonstrations at Christmas on the Farm

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Christmas on the Farm features live music in the barnyard, traditional crafts, folklife demonstrations, hearth-cooking, live animals, children’s activities and more. Indulge your interest in regional folk culture 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center’s Christmas on the Farm 2024: a celebration of the holiday season and Pennsylvania German Christmas traditions. Located on the historic Sharadin Farmstead, 22 Luckenbill Road, Kutztown, the event is free, fun and educational for the whole family.

Enjoy some of the region’s finest in traditional music in the barnyard featuring local Berks County folk musicians Mike and Linda Hertzog, Dave Kline and Keith Brintzenhoff. The Belsnickel will pay visits to the schoolhouse at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., so be sure to be on your best behavior!

Traditional artisans from the Reading-Berks Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen will share their expertise in fine crafts in the historic log cabins onsite, along with folklife demonstrators in woodworking, tin smithing, blacksmithing and more throughout the farm.

Grab lunch at Mattie’s Strudel house and find a selection of sweet and savory strudels – perfect for lunch or dessert.

Visit the Sharadin farmhouse, where Becky Manley will demonstrate open-hearth regional cookery in the kitchen featuring traditional Pennsylvania Dutch food. Be sure to stop by the summer kitchen to taste Terry Berger’s ox tongue cookies baked in a wood stove.

Children can explore autumn craft activities including wax dipped Moravian stars and corn husk angels. Puddin Heartland’s extraordinary potbellied pigs will also delight visitors of all ages. Enjoy a hayride around the farm, starting behind the barn.

Don’t forget to visit our new headquarters at the DeLight E. Breidegam Building to explore our featured exhibition “Carved from our Roots: Selected Works of Marshall D. Rumbaugh.”

Pick up a copy of the newest volume to the annual Heritage Center publication series, Sauer’s Herbal Cures: America’s First Book of Botanical Healing, by William Woys Weaver, hot off the press and available the Heritage Center bookstand.

For more information, follow PGCHC on Facebook and Instagram, visit www.pagerman.org or call 610-683-1589.