Morrisville Celebrates the Holidays
BY ELIZABETH BRIGNAC
The holiday season starts early in Morrisville. Beginning in October, local communities begin putting up lights and enjoying Diwali holiday celebrations. As the date of Diwali approaches (it took place at the end of October this year), the sound of fireworks becomes common, and community celebrations include lights, music and (of course) delicious food. Moving into Thanksgiving and Christmas, the lights stay up, trees are lit and holiday craft fairs and celebrations for Christmas begin. The fun continues all the way through New Year’s Day. “People in Morrisville love events, and they come for everything,” says Leslie Haney, Special Events and Cultural Resources Supervisor for Morrisville’s department of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources.
Here are some special ways to celebrate the holiday season in Morrisville.
Light Up Morrisville
Light Up Morrisville incorporates three different town-sponsored events: the Diwali event, which was held on October 19 this year; the Tree Lighting, which will be held on December 7; and the Menorah Lighting, which will take place on December 27. “It’s still three separate events,” says Haney, “but we brand the whole thing as Light Up Morrisville.” Each event focuses on a multicultural celebration related to light and brings members of different cultural communities together to celebrate. The town is considering adding a lunar festival celebration and a Kwanzaa event to Light Up Morrisville in the future.
Diwali
This Hindu festival of lights, like Christmas and other seasonal holidays, has expanded beyond its original religious context (though it remains a Hindu celebration), and is widely celebrated in Indian and other Asian cultures. Almost half the people who live in Morrisville are from India or of Indian descent, so Diwali is particularly popular here. The Town of Morrisville staff works with members of the Indian and Hindu communities to plan the Diwali celebration.
This year, the event centered on a fashion show. Members of the Morrisville Town Council and other town celebrities wore fashions from as many Indian states as the organizers could represent. Visitors decorated diyas—traditional clay Diwali lamps—with paint and other materials and lit them with tea lights as the daylight faded. Vendors sold Indian gifts and goods, and enjoyed treats from Indian and vegetarian food trucks. The event wrapped up with a traditional fireworks display.
Tree Lighting
On the first Saturday in December, Morrisville holds its annual Tree Lighting celebration. After a countdown, when the Christmas tree is lit, all the buildings and lights on Town Hall Drive light up as well, and they stay lit for the rest of December.
The town has combined the Tree Lighting with the Morrisville Police Department’s annual holiday event, bringing customs from both groups into its celebration. (In a spirit of friendly competition with the police department, the fire department often gets involved informally as well.) The event includes hot chocolate, a DJ, local performers, kids’ crafts and an appearance from Santa Claus. It also features the Grinch, played by a police officer, in jail. Each year, the town gives out specially designed Christmas ornaments at the event. This year, Haney expects the ornaments will celebrate the three new murals the town had painted in 2024.
Menorah Lighting
During Hanukkah, the town lights a 9-foot-tall menorah at an event that is usually accompanied by Jewish musical performances, Hanukkah doughnuts and hot cider. A rabbi runs a traditional menorah lighting ceremony, and dreidels are handed out. (Often, someone even dresses up as a dreidel.) When the menorah is lit, the light bulbs that usually illuminate it are replaced with flames, to impressive effect. (They remain lightbulbs outside the context of the event.)
This year, the first day of Hanukkah is December 25, and the Menorah Lighting will be December 27. Because many staff will be off at that time and because attendance tends to be low the week after Christmas, the event will be a little lower-key than usual, but the town council will attend, and the public is encouraged to take part. The town expects the event to return to its usual size next year, when Hanukkah falls earlier in the month. You can learn more about Light Up Morrisville events from the Town of Morrisville web page at morrisvillenc.gov. Go to the Morrisville Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources department’s Special Events section.
Holiday Fairs and Festivals
Park West Village’s Winter Wonderland Festival
Friday, November 22–Sunday, November 24
Friday and Saturday: 5:30–8:30 p.m.
Sunday: 2:00-5:30 p.m.
3400 Village Market Place, Morrisville
Enjoy story time with Santa, train rides around Park West Village, visiting the TROSA Christmas tree lot, food trucks, hot beverages, holiday music and more!
Morrisville Chamber of Commerce Holiday Market
Saturday, December 7, 9 a.m.–noon
Brier Pointe Retirement Community
5911 McCrimmon Parkway, Morrisville
About 50 local vendors will set up tables selling Christmas gifts. Santa will be available for photos, and visitors can enjoy hot cocoa and win raffle prizes.
Western Wake Farmers Market’s Winter Wonderland Craft Fair
Saturday, December 14, 9:30 a.m.–noon
Morrisville Healthy Food Hub
280 Town Hall Drive, Morrisville
Dozens of vendors will be selling food and gifts, and kids can meet Santa Claus. The event will include a food drive. Visitors may bring nonperishable food items to benefit Dorcas Ministries.
Where to Go: Morrisville Bakeries
BY ELIZABETH LINCICOME
The holiday season calls for cookies, breads and other baked treats. Morrisville is home to a wide variety of bakeries to satisfy any sweet tooth.
The Western Wake Farmers Market is a great place to start, as it features booths by several great local bakers each week. Morrisville-based WildMoose Bakers makes sourdough breads and rolls. Merlin Want, market manager for the farmers market, says that WildMoose is by far one of the main crowd pleasers. “Their calling card is their San [Francisco] style sourdough, though everything they make tastes great,” he says. Traditional Delicious Bakery also shows up every Saturday, offering handmade Venezuelan breads stuffed with different fillings such as pepperoni and mozzarella, spinach and artichoke, and blueberry and cream cheese. All their breads come ready-to-eat and can last a week in the fridge. Dee’s Kitchen, which offers brownies, cookies, bars and other sweet treats, attends the farmers market every other week. All of their products are vegan and contain whole grains, and most are also organic.
Eggless Cakes of RTP offers a unique spin on traditional baked goods with their freshly baked, custom eggless cakes and brownies. The bakery also makes sugar-free cakes using natural sweeteners and caters to other special dietary restrictions as well.
Finally, The Kupkake Fairy offers cupcakes, wedding cakes, birthday cakes, made-from-scratch pound cakes and more. Customers are even able to incorporate their own creative designs into their cakes. The Kupcake Fairy also provides vegan baked goods.
Positive Childhood Alliance
BY ELIZABETH LINCICOME
“We know connections matter—for our children, parents and the community,” explains Sharon Hirsch, President and CEO of Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina (PCANC, formerly Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina). The group, which operates out of Morrisville, has been working to improve the lives of neglected children in and around the state since 1979. “We love Morrisville’s motto: ‘Live Connected. Live Well.’ Our work to advance policies, programs and practices to support well-being for all children and families embraces the spirit of Morrisville,” says Hirsch.
PCANC’s mission is to ensure that as many children as possible are growing up in safe, stable and nurturing families and communities. They do this in several ways: through advocacy, building positive connections between people and families within communities, educating and supporting parents, and encouraging everyone to recognize and respond to signs of abuse. “Oftentimes, children and their families are the ones who are required to change their behavior or are at the center of solving the problem, including removing children from their families. However, PCANC recognizes that the system around families, including other people, have a responsibility for supporting families and helping create solutions,” the group says.
PCANC focuses on primary prevention, which builds healthy, family-friendly communities and workplaces with a lot of open interaction; secondary prevention, which targets at-risk groups with specific prevention strategies; and tertiary prevention, which creates long-term responses to stop abuse and neglect, like foster care and mental health interventions.
The organization also acts as an educational resource, providing free online training in both English and Spanish. Workshops, training sessions and webinars offer the latest information, research and strategies to help strengthen families and ensure that all children thrive.
