The best Christmas gifts come in small towns

BARDSTOWN, Ky. - Sept. 28, 2016 - PRLog -- There's something magical about a small town at Christmastime. Bardstown, KY's seven-week-long Christmas Round Bardstown celebration lets visitors immerse themselves in the beauty, joy and magic of a small-town Christmas.

Beginning with Holiday Sneak-A-Peek at downtown shops on Nov. 11 and running through Dec. 31 with a New Year's Eve train excursion, Bardstown will host 25 unique holiday events and activities: parade, tree lighting, holiday open houses, live nativity, Christmas teas, North Pole-themed train excursions, candlelight tours of My Old Kentucky Home, visits with Santa and much more. See Bardstown's Calendar of Events (http://www.visitbardstown.com/festivals-and-events) for dates and details.

Holiday in lights

Light Up Bardstown takes place 6-8 p.m. Nov. 25 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 Maker's Mark Distillery and its 1850s Victorian village on Dec. 3 and 10 and to My Old Kentucky Home on 6-9 p.m. Dec. 15, 16, 17 and 18. Here, experience the beauty of Federal Hill as the Rowan family in residence shares its story of a Victorian Christmas accompanied by holiday music and refreshments.

All aboard the Christmas trains

Get a ticket for the North Pole Express with Kentucky Railway Museum (KRM), Friday-Sunday, Dec. 2-19, and on Monday, Dec. 19, featuring cookies and hot chocolate. KRM will also have a Santa Express every Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 3-18, and on Monday, Dec. 19.

My Old Kentucky Dinner Train hosts its popular North Pole Express, Saturdays, Dec. 3, 10 and 17, and Sundays, Dec. 4, 11 and 18. 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 on Dec. 31. Reservations required.

Only-in-Bardstown holiday events

Celebrate a Civil War Christmas on Dec. 3 during a living history day with soldier re-enactors gathered at Old Pioneer Village set up as a Christmas encampment. Come Home for the Holidays at the Jim Beam American Stillhouse on Dec. 9 when Jim Beam Master Distiller, Fred Noe, and his son, Freddie, host a dinner with live music, mixology creations and premium bourbon tasting, plus holiday swag bags and more. And have tea with historical figure Mrs. Julia Beckham during her Victorian Tea at Wickland, Home of Three Governors at 12 p.m. Dec. 10 and 4 p.m. Dec. 11.

More holiday cheer

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 six 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.

Where sugarplums dance

There is enough holiday activity in Bardstown to fill a weekend getaway. Book one of Bardstown's 17 bed and breakfast inns, including the Jailer's Inn, which hosts a Dec. 1 holiday Open House with hot cider and cookies; The Verandah, a century old home located two blocks from My Old Kentucky Dinner Train; and Bourbon Manor, a 10-room inn with bourbon-inspired full country gourmet breakfasts and a Bourbon Bar, called The Bunghole, serving tapas and dessert.

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

MEDIA CONTACT:

Dawn Przystal (mailto:dawn@bardstowntourism.com), Executive Director-Bardstown-Nelson County TCC, 800-638-4877 x 114

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

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 is more familiarly known as 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. 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. Additionally, Bardstown has four 18-hole golf courses, three wineries, two haunted tours and numerous religious attractions. Expedia selected Bardstown as one of the "18 Most Interesting U.S. Destinations"; Fodor picked it as one of "America's Best Small Towns"; and AARP named it one of its "10 best small towns." It led TheCultureTrip.com's list of the "10 Most Beautiful Towns in Kentucky" and was named the "Most Beautiful Small Town in America" in the Rand McNally/USA Today 2012 "Best of the Road" contest. Bardstown landed in the top 20 of "America's Favorite Towns" by Travel + Leisure – which also recognized it as having one of "America's Most Beautiful Town Squares." In 2013, Bardstown was designated a certified Kentucky Cultural District, one of only six Kentucky cities to achieve this honor. www.facebook.com/BardstownKY