Come Home for Christmas in the Most Beautiful Small Town in America

BARDSTOWN, Ky. - Oct. 3, 2017 - PRLog -- The Most Beautiful Small Town in America invites you to come home for the holidays during Christmas Round Bardstown. Beginning on Nov. 7 with My Old Kentucky Home's "Merry & Bright" event through My Old Kentucky Dinner Train's New Year's Eve excursion, the nearly two-month-long celebration invites visitors to immerse themselves in the magic, joy and beauty of a small-town Christmas. Enjoy 25 unique holiday events and activities, from parade, tree lighting and North Pole-themed train excursions to Christmas teas, candlelight tours and a musical cast performing "An Old Kentucky Christmas Carol." See Bardstown's Calendar of Events (http://www.visitbardstown.com/plan-your-trip/events-calendar/) for dates and details.

Kentucky's home for Christmas

Kentucky's most famous landmark, My Old Kentucky Home, will be decorated with 12-feet-tall Christmas trees, each trimmed with a unique Kentucky theme, including Meadows in the Bloom and Birds Make Music All the Day, and trimmed with garland, mistletoe and stockings full of toys. See the gingerbread model of the historic mansion made by the pastry chef and nutcrackers standing guard over the mansion's many rooms.

During the new "Merry & Bright" event, learn the origins of the most iconic symbols of Christmas, hear about a spirit horse named Mary Lwyd that challenges visitors to a game of rhymes and experience Victorian Christmas customs, including the legend of Krampus, who punished naughty children. Each room presents a different era of Christmas, from colonial times to the roaring twenties when the mansion was last owned by the Rowan family. Guides in Victorian hoop skirts and gentleman in tailcoats will serenade all the song, "My Old Kentucky Home."

On Dec. 8, 9, 15 and 16, My Old Kentucky Home's talented musical cast will perform Charles Dickens' novel, A Christmas Carol, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge's journey to discover the true meaning of Christmas. Be transported into the story during this new event as the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future lead you from scene to scene while singing songs of Christmas. www.visitmyoldkyhome.com

Holiday in lights

Light Up Bardstown takes place 6-8 p.m. Nov. 24 at the Welcome Center Plaza on Court Square with the lighting of the Christmas tree and lamppost wreaths. Music, refreshments, Santa and frolicking deer will be part of the fun. Candlelight comes to Barton 1792 Distillery on Nov. 24 for lantern-lit tours; Maker's Mark Distillery and its 1850s Victorian village on Dec. 2; and to My Old Kentucky Home during the Christmas Tour of Homes on Dec. 9.

Away to the North Pole

Get a ticket for the North Pole Express with Kentucky Railway Museum (KRM), Friday-Sunday, Dec. 1-17, and on Dec. 21, 22 and 23, featuring cookies and hot chocolate. KRM will also have a Santa Express every Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 2-17.

My Old Kentucky Dinner Train hosts its popular North Pole Express, Saturdays, Dec. 2-23, and Sundays, Nov. 26-Dec. 17. Children can make crafts and watch a movie in the depot before boarding the train, where Santa Claus will join everyone. Ring in the new year aboard a two-hour New Year's Eve excursion with 4-course meal and bottle of champagne on Dec. 31. Reservations required.

More holiday cheer

Celebrate a Civil War Christmas on Dec. 2 during a living history day with soldier re-enactors gathered at Old Pioneer Village set up as a Christmas encampment. At 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7, The Bardstown Kiwanis Club's Annual Christmas Parade takes place in downtown Bardstown with floats, bands and an appearance by Santa Claus. Also on Dec. 7 is Old Jailer's Inn Open House with hot cider and cookies and tours of decorated bed and breakfast rooms, including the jail cell. Have tea with historical figure Mrs. Julia Beckham during her Victorian Tea at Wickland, Home of Three Governors at 12 p.m. Dec. 9 and 4 p.m. Dec. 10.

Christmas presents waiting to be wrapped

Bring your holiday gift list for one-of-a-kind Christmas shopping, Bardstown-style. With more than two dozen independently-owned shops and boutiques crowding Court Square, easy-to-get-to and one-of-a-kind museums with equally distinctive gift shops, and seven distilleries – each with a gift shop as singularly impressive as the bourbon they produce – you can stroll and browse and buy the perfect gift for everyone on your list without fighting traffic and mall crowds.

See all the holiday events planned during Christmas Round Bardstown here (https://www.visitbardstown.com/plan-your-trip/events-cale...). Book your overnight stay as soon as possible as Bardstown bed and breakfast inns and hotels fill up quickly for this two-month-long celebration. For more information, contact the Bardstown-Nelson County Tourist & Convention Commission at 800-638-4877, www.VisitBardstown.com.


MEDIA CONTACT:

Patti Berry (mailto:pberry@bardstowntourism.com), AdministrativeDirector – Bardstown-Nelson County TCC, 800-638-4877 x 114

Bardstown-Nelson County Tourist & Convention Commission (http://www.visitbardstown.com/)

HI- and LOW-RES photos available.

ABOUT BARDSTOWN (http://www.visitbardstown.com/), KY | Located in the heart of Kentucky Bourbon Country and situated at the trailhead of the famed Kentucky Bourbon Trail®, Bardstown, KY is the Bourbon Capital of the World. It is home to six distilleries, including Barton 1792 and Willett Distillery, and these four Kentucky Bourbon Trail® distilleries: Heaven Hill, Maker's Mark, Jim Beam and Four Roses' second campus. Three new distilleries will open within the next year. Major attractions include the outdoor musical, "The Stephen Foster Story," My Old Kentucky Home State Park, the highly regarded Civil War Museum of the Western Theatre, My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, The Kentucky Railway Museum and Whisky Magazine's Visitor Attraction of the Year – the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History. Bardstown has four 18-hole golf courses, three wineries, a haunted tour and numerous religious attractions. www.facebook.com/BardstownKY