Community Corner
Santa's Arriving in Bath Township Tonight
Kick off the holiday season at the 8th Annual Wye Road Bridge Lighting Festival.
It’s the idyllic small-town celebration: Carolers carol as visitors partake of free cookies and hot chocolate while awaiting the arrival of Santa in his antique sleigh.
In Bath Township – during the 8th Annual Wye Road Bridge Lighting Festival – the Jolly Old Elf appears to children on the bridge just after organizers flip on its Christmas lights.
The Yuletide events sponsored by the Bath Business Association will play out today starting at 5:30 p.m.
Find out what's happening in Fairlawn-Bathwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Here’s the lineup:
• 5:30 p.m. – Holiday carolers will lead attendees in a sing-a-long
Find out what's happening in Fairlawn-Bathwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
• 5:50 p.m. – Welcome
• 5:55 p.m. – Holiday bridge lighting
• 6:00 p.m. – Santa arrives via the bridge
• 6:10 p.m. – Visits with Santa at CleverPup 101 in the Old Schoolhouse; professional photos available or bring your camera
• 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. – Cookies, hot chocolate, coffee and water available in the tent outside
Nancy Fay, festival co-chair with Nadine Clar, said the event started as “kind of a celebration” for The Bake Shop in Ghent, the pastry shop she co-owns and runs with her sisters and a niece.
“The Wye Road Bridge had been torn down for two years and that took most of our traffic away. So we held an open house (coinciding) with the opening of the new bridge,” Fay explained.
The township also staged an official celebration of the bridge opening. The following year the Bath Business Association created a hybrid of the two events, hanging holiday lights and garland on the bridge and inviting township residents to kick off the holiday season with their neighbors.
“It was a little celebration that just grew into something bigger,” Fay explained.
Community involvement has increased annually, she said, with participation and donations coming from businesses, township officials and organizations.
“We’ve always had some kind of carolers,” Fay said. “This year we’re very lucky that the Healthy Communites Healthy Youth (Bath-Richfield) group is having some of the kids in a choir doing the caroling.”
Santa will arrive in an antique sleigh fitted onto a cart pulled by a small tractor driven by Bath firefighter Larry Coffee. Fay said Coffee’s tractor might be decked out in antlers and a Rudolph nose this year.
A costumed Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer will circulate through the crowd, handing candy out to kids in attendance.
Children’s storytelling will take place at Veronica Inc., where kids will be able to write holiday cards to U.S. service members.
Since the first celebration, the Real Santa has been assisted in Bath by his near-twin, Herb Shepler. “He’s a really good Santa Claus,” Fay said. Children can visit with him at CleverPup 101 Schoolhouse.
The coffee that will be served was donated by Panera. The free cookies were donated by Vaughn & Co. and The Bake Shop in Ghent, the latter of which also donated the hot chocolate.