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Raleigh Moravian Church's Christmas Candle Tea

  • When: Saturday, December 2, 2023,  1:00 pm -  5:00 pm
  • Location: 1816 Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC 27607
  • Cost: Free Admission

We're counting down to Christmas Candle Tea at Raleigh Moravian Church! This year's version is on Saturday, December 2, from 2 - 6 p.m. For decades, on the first Saturday in December, members of Raleigh Moravian Church have donned 18th century costumes, picked up our band instruments, candle molds, cookie cutters and star patterns and welcomed our neighbors into our celebration of Advent. All afternoon, we have beautiful holiday music in the sanctuary. In the narthex, visitors enjoy discovering year-to-year changes in the elaborate nativity scene -- or putz, to Moravians. Members of the church band play outside several times throughout the day. Hosts and hostesses serve sugarcake and hot coffee, Moravian style -- with plenty of milk and sugar -- to shoppers eager to stock up on Moravian cookies, stars, handmade beeswax candles, cookbooks, and much more. Members of the church demonstrate traditional crafts that remain part of Moravian church practice today. Church members, for example, make and trim all of the beeswax candles used in Christmas Candle Lovefeast services. A recent and very important Candle Tea tradition is the Giving Tree, a chance for visitors and members to contribute financial donations and non-perishable food to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Raleigh Moravian Church has hosted its Candle Tea since 1958, with exceptions only for blizzards and Covid!

Concert Schedule for Candle Tea:
2:00 Broughton High School Festival Choir
2:30 Sanderson High School A Cappella Ensemble
3:00 Cary High School Concert Chorus
3:30 Organ Concert, Sara Montgomery
4:00 Capital City Girls Choir
4:30 Raleigh Moravian Church Bass Quintet
The music concludes at 5 p.m. Candle Tea runs from 2 until 6 p.m. As always, Candle Tea is open to the public, admission free, and everyone is welcome!

Please join us!

PS—if you’re planning to visit Christmas Candle Tea, consider bringing non-perishable food to put under our Giving Tree!

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