These two sweeties will be dancing their hearts out at the Rainbow Irish Step Dancers’ Christmas recital this weekend.
Okay, it’s officially Celtic Christmas. In Philly, in Springfield, in Kennett Square, in Bensalem, and in Cochranville. There are five Christmas shows this weekend (and one event that’s all about Christmas giving). And there’s another later in the week. So, here goes:
On Saturday afternoon, celebrate an eclectic American Celtic Christmas with Jamison Celtic Rock, Celtic Flame School of Irish Dance, DJ Romeo, singer Kimberly Killen and the Bucks County Dance Company at the Bensalem High School Auditorium, which is being turned into a winter wonderland. It’s the second year for this Christmas-flavored musical event and we hear it’s loads of fun.
Not technically a Christmas event, but Christmassy nonetheless, is a benefit to raise money to defray medical costs for Wee Oscar Knox, the three-year-old Belfast boy who captured everyone’s hearts when he was at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia this fall. His parents spent all the money they raised to get him what they hoped was a life-saving cancer treatment only to find that he had another incurable condition that made treatment impossible. Oscar was born with a genetic condition that caused him some developmental problems, but left him also one of the sunniest, sweetest creatures God ever made, say local Irish folks who met him. This love story will continue at Tir na Nog in Center City on Sunday afternoon at the event, co-sponsored by Irish Network-Philly and Team Oscar-Philly.
Also on Sunday, the Divine Providence Rainbow Irish Step Dancers, who won an award for their first appearance in the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day parade in 2012, will present their Celtic Christmas Irish Dance Recitial at the Cardinal Krol Center in Springfield, Delaware County. The dancers, all of whom are developmentally disabled, are raising money to buy logo jackets to wear in the 2013 parade.
On Sunday afternoon, join the Jubilate Deo Chorale with guest choirs Eastern University Ensembles and Church of Our Saviour Festival Choir for a Celtic-flavored Christmas show at the Kimmel in Philadelphia. There will also be a live nativity presentation.
Need a little more Christmas spirit? Danu, the well known Irish traditional group, will be performing an Irish Christmas at Longwood Gardens, which also has its Christmas light show up and running, on Sunday at 3 PM.
And at 4 PM, we have the first of two Christmas concerts presented by St. Malachi’s of Doe Run, in Cochranville, another annual event.
There are some non-Christmas Irish events this week too. On Saturday, Timlin & Kane will be singing at Catherine Rooney’s Irish Pub in Wilmington, DE, and Mary Courtney will be performing at the Tir Na Nog Irish Pub in Trenton, NJ, which was the homebase of the late Irish Billy Briggs (which I mention for all you old folks who remember Billy).
Padraig Allen, considered one of Ireland’s finest singer-songwriters, will be on stage on Sunday at the Sellersville Theatre with McLean Avenue Band, performing both Irish traditional and Celtic rock tunes.
A bit far flung for Phillyites, but with a local link: Celtic Thunder will be performing on Monday at Sullivan Hall in Greenwich Village, NY, in a benefit for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Many of Sandy’s victims in NY came from predominantly Irish areas like Queens and New York’s Irish community has rallied to help them.
On Tuesday, nourish your Irish soul with the poetry of Hennessy Award winning poet and fiction writer Dermot Healy at Villanova University.
On Thursday, the Irish Tenors are coming to the Keswick Theatre and you can catch Paul Byrom, late of the Celtic Thunder supergroup, at Sellersville.
On Friday, we highly recommend combining your love of music with your need to Christmas shop by heading to Lansdale’s Water Gallery to hear The History of Christmas Carols concert by The Jameson Sisters, Ellen Tepper and Terry Kane. Not only is their music beautiful, they’re very funny and Tepper is a skilled craftsperson whose Celtic windows and pottery dragons are for sale at this little gallery. Admission is free. You’ll see crafts and jewelry from other Irish musicians there too.
Next weekend: Head over to the Irish Center where they’re holding an open house. Meet some local authors (and buy their books), check out some interesting exhibits, and attend a live broadcast of the Vince Gallagher and Marianne MacDonald Irish radio shows. Oh, and have a beer and a bite to eat at the bar that reminds so many people of the Ireland they left behind.
The Delco Gaels, a Gaelic athletic club, will be having its Christmas party and Nite at the Races fundraiser next weekend at Maggie O’Neills in Drexel Hill. But the big story is that they’ll also be announcing who will be competing in the mother of all fundraisers, Dancing Like a Star, later next year. Last year’s dance competition attracted about 700 people—yes, standing room only—to the Springfield Country Club for a night to remember.
