BELLVILLE — Experience Bethlehem begins the Christmas Season by depicting the story of the very first Christmas Dec. 7 to 9 at Clear Fork Alliance Church at 1008 St. Rt. 97 E, Bellville, across from Clear Fork High School.

  • Bellville’s Walt Lowe portrays a blacksmith in Experience Bethlehem.

  • Mansfield’s Ken Hubert is a potter in Experience Bethlehem in Bellville.

  • Bellville’s Lonnie McGhee portrays a Roman soldier in Experience Bethlehem.

  • Mansfield’s Ron Siefert plays King Herod in this Bethlehem re-enactment in Bellville.

Free tours take guest through live scenes telling the story of the birth of Jesus and ends at the stable where the baby is found in the manger surrounded by animals from a local petting zoo.

As the tour ends, guest enter the lively town of Bethlehem. Upon arrival the census taker hands each guest a free bag of gold coins and invites them to spend them sampling foods and purchasing wares from authentic vendors such as the blacksmith, the leather worker, the potter, and the weaver.

Some of the children’s favorite shops are the jewelry shop, the flower shop where they can make their own potpourri, the fishmonger’s stall selling fish crackers and gummies or they can choose to use their coins to engage in fun activities or use them to bribe a Roman guard to put an unsuspecting guest in the town jail.

Last year over 1,000 people visited Clear Fork Alliance Church. Experience Bethlehem is a free, all inside, family event. This year it is the weekend of Dec. 7, 8, 9. On Friday and Saturday the tours are from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday.