THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

What does a town do to replace the mainstay industry? For the town of Bethlehem PA, the answer lies in the Christmas tradition begun 2000 years ago in a town of the same name in Judea.

For those who lost their jobs, Christmas tourism is a “long, ongoing Christmas miracle every year,” said Lynn Cunningham Collins, senior vice president of Bethlehem Initiatives at the local Great Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. In many other steel towns, like Gary, Indiana, the end of steel meant a flight of young workers to nearby metropolises where they could find work. Thanks to the resurgence of the Christmas industry and other service sector jobs — in particular at the nearby Sands Casino, a major driver of the local economy and sponsor of Christmas tourism — Bethlehem has only recently recovered its tax base after its post-steel bout with flight and employment. Bethlehem’s population fell by nearly 2,000 people around the factory’s closure at the turn of the millennium but has rebounded in recent years, thanks to jobs in service industry positions and in lower-scale manufacture at, for example, the town’s Just Born factory, which produces Peeps, the iconic marshmallow treats.

The town’s Christmas festivities include two bazaars, one in two large tents at the base of the plant’s blast furnaces, that house local artisans and performing artists. Christmas tourism draws 100,000 people annually and growing, bouncing back in the past few years since the Great Recession. Some of Bethlehem’s businesspeople — selling everything from their signature star ornaments to smoked meats — say they make close to a third of their annual income at the town’s Christmas events.

There’s no room at the inn on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem – local hoteliers say they are booked. But what may come as bad news for weary travelers is heralded as a sign of good tidings by business authorities like Cunningham Collins.

It’s not just a tenuous link to Christmas that Bethlehem is selling, Cunningham Collins insists, although Bethlehem’s Middle Eastern counterpart, where Jesus was born, is 5,756 miles away. According to local lore, Moravian settlers conceived of the name at a Christmas celebration after singing a verse of the hymn “Jesus, Call Thou Me”: “Not Jerusalem, lowly Bethlehem/ ’Twas that gave us Christ to save us/ Not Jerusalem, favored Bethlehem! Honored is that name.”

When locals sing carols like “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” Cunningham Collins says, “We know it’s not about our Bethlehem, but we still feel that it’s our Bethlehem.”

And the town has a history of cashing in on Christmas in times of trouble.

“In the 1930s, during the height of the Depression, the local Chamber of Commerce wanted to take advantage of this whole concept of being Christmas City USA, sending letters to chambers of commerce throughout the USA,” dubbing Bethlehem a destination for families looking for a festive destination to visit, said Charlene Donchez Mowers, president of Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites.

If it worked once before, why not give it another try. Just watch out for infestations of evangelicals.