THANK YOU to all who attended our 2024 Sights and Sounds of Christmas event!
Please check back in early fall of 2025 for the date of our next event.
DATE & TIME: December ??, 2025 — 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
STARTING LOCATION: Second Presbyterian Church, 42 East Church Street
Sights and Sounds of Christmas is a guided, musical walking tour of Newarkâs downtown churches with proceeds benefiting the Licking County Food Pantry Network. The event is designed to showcase the city’s historic churches while celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.
Started in 2001, but missing two seasons due to the pandemic, Sights and Sounds of Christmas is in its twenty-second year. Originally conceived by the Events Committee of the Newark Alliance, the event has become a tradition for many families. The walking tour is paced to allow the event to be intergenerational with universal appeal.
Seven downtown churches are featured on the tour: Second Presbyterian; Trinity AME; Trinity Episcopal; First Presbyterian; St. Paul’s Lutheran; First United Methodist; and St. Francis De Sales Catholic. This year, the tour will also stop at ‘Callander Corners’ (4th and Church Streets).
After the performance at Second Presbyterian, the event attendees separate into two groups for the tour. Two ‘lamplighters,’ dressed in red and green period costumes, lead the two tour groups along separate, luminaria-lined routes throughout the downtown. The tour groups each stop for musical performances at six other locations before reuniting for the final stop at St. Francis De Sales Catholic, where a musical performance and a cookie reception await.
