National Christmas Center Family Attraction & Museum — Local services in Londonderry Township

Let me start by saying I loved Jim Morrison’s National Christmas Center. It was a family tradition to go every Christmas Eve. His vision and love of Christmas was infectious and got us ready for the season every time. And the icing on the cake was the walk through Bethlehem to see baby Jesus.

The current owners saved Jim’s collection but have not come close to Jim’s magical experience. The collection has been partially installed in a vacant office building where everything must have to be temporary because walls and ceilings are not finished to complete the illusion. Bare drywall and foam core everywhere. At $22 per adult for a lesser experience, I felt it was over priced. Plus there is not enough parking they say at this temporary facility so they had us park ten minutes away and take their shuttle. With only one shuttle, it was an almost 30 minute wait back to the off-site parking lot once we were done.

When something is so beloved by so many, you have to do it right and exceed expectations. I really hope things begin to improve and they do a better job focusing on the magic of the customer experience and casting vision for the future. There is great potential. I hope to be able to positively update my review in the future.

Note most if not all of the reviews and pictures posted here as of 12/27/21 are of the old National...

The website gives an address of Stone Gables Estate. Google Maps gives a different address where nothing exists. A Stone Gables Estate employee at the first at the first wrong address gives an approximate location by landmarks that also are not there. There are what appears to be no signs whatsoever.

Eventually, closing time came around and we gave up looking for it. I referenced the link to the tickets (not the website!), where it says to park somewhere for a 30 minute trolley ride to what is claimed to be the actual location of the Christmas center. I’m not convinced that it’s real, and that the idea of it is some diabolical analog to Santa Claus. So I paid my $44 to learn this beautiful life lesson and to take in the sight of Central PA’s vast assortment of corn fields.

Do not go to Stone Gables Estate to find this place. Park in the magic parking lot and wait for Tom Hanks to pick you up in his mystical Polar Express Trolley. I’ll note that I had been to the Center when it was in Paradise and it was 100% amazing, with the added bonus that it actually was a real place. I’ll update this review when the website posts a clear location of the center (and a possible satellite image of its secret hideout), with an explicit explanation that it is nowhere that any mapping tool...

A wonderful Christmas museum and gift shop. Don't know why I never heard of it before a few years ago. I even shopped/traveled through the general area for MANY years, but never knew about it (maybe could use more advertisement for a wider area audience). It is a little on the pricey side for this kind of thing. They probably could easily get away with charging only $5 for a one time admission and $10 for an entire year. They could also expand their gift shop TREMENDOUSLY, considering the potential for all kinds of neat and unusual Christmas items that are available on the market. Then once they have a tremendous inventory they could allow free admission that day for a purchase of maybe around $25 to $50 (they kind of do that on their TINY inventory of online goods, which they need to expand to include most everything they stock in store). Still a neat place to visit, and should easily warm your heart if you even love Christmas...