Bethlehem at Christmas

[olwen]

Good morning all

This may seem like a strange request but my elderly aunt has always wanted to speak with someone who has visited Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and I'm here looking to see if anyone here has accomplished this and would be willing to make an old woman's life long wish come true.

Rest assured this is all above board, i'm well aware of trolls and scams and the such but she's getting on a bit and is harmless.

If anyone would be willing to have a chat with her we would all be forever grateful. Please reply if yourself or anyone you know would be willing to give this a go.

Many thanks for reading this :)

Louise

[CoffeeCat]

Good morning, Olwen! Welcome to Bibleforums. :) Good to have you here. I've never been to Bethlehem at Christmas, but I think that would be a very awesome journey. I understand that in times of peace, there are some beautiful Christmas celebrations. How about you? Do you have any interest in going, yourself? And are you and your aunt pretty interested in the biblical version of what happened on the first Christmas (as a reason for wanting to go to Bethlehem)? :)

Take care, talk to you later!

[DaniHansen]

I recently watched a bit of a documentary on what happens around Christmas time in such towns as Nazareth and Bethlehem. The documentary was Catholic based but it was a real eye opener for me. Bunches of pomp and circumstance with procession of "patriarchs" of each branch of the established "church" ... i.e. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and so forth, in their traditional garb being driven through town in their limousines. I didn't like it, honestly. But, to each their own. There are people who enjoy such things and the Church of the Nativity, for example, has a massive service on Christmas Eve and is always packed with people from around the world.

Not knowing what your aunt's background and preferences are, that's a really tough call to make. She might just enjoy things like that, but I'm basing my information off of one documentary, so I can only give you a hint of partial information. What I saw was deeply rooted in a lot of man-made tradition but again, there are people who draw comfort from that and enjoy it immensely.

I would suggest you research some travel web sites and tourist information and share them with your aunt to see if that's something she would enjoy. :)