The Christmas season is a time filled with joy, laughter and tradition as members of the community find ways to celebrate the holiday. The newly renovated Keith-Albee wants to bring a little more magic to the season by offering its first annual Christmas at the Keith holiday tours and Christmas tree auction.
The first annual Christmas at the Keith comes after renovations to the historic building. The Keith Albee Performing Arts Center first opened its doors in 1928 and has been serving the Huntington community ever since. The Christmas celebration is the first held in the theater’s history, something the staff wants to bring back annually.
Executive Director David Miller says after multi-million dollar renovations and a 2,400-seat venue, the group wanted to open the space to the community more often, and they will be hosting more events in the future.
“So, you want the community to be engaged and to feel like they have buy into a building like this, and one of the best ways to build traditions is starting around the holidays, so you’ll see a lot of communities and other theaters that will do this kind of Christmas tree fundraising model,” Miller said.
The Keith is lined with nearly 40 trees decorated by sponsors from local businesses and community members. From Lego to old Hollywood movies, there’s no telling what locals may discover throughout the building. Guests can bid on their favorite trees and have a chance to take them home and display them for the holiday season. Along with the display of trees, the theater will be playing Christmas movies for families to enjoy.
“When it was built 100 years ago, the people that were building it, like the founders for it, said that they felt like this was a building that Huntington deserved, and they wanted their mission, back then, was to build a building that they felt the people of this area deserved. … So here we are 100 years later as a nonprofit with kind of the exact same mission,” Miller said.
Miller says he wants more organizations and community members to join the Christmas celebration next year, and everyone is welcome to decorate a tree for auction, including student clubs at Marshall.
“Student organizations would also be more than welcome to do trees as well. One things we’ve noticed in the past with other theaters and communities that have done these is that it also develops kind of a friendly competition amongst the decorators, … and there’s one thing that student orgs do well is friendly competition.”
The Christmas at the Keith tours and Christmas tree auction is open until Saturday, Nov. 22. Tour hours and auction dates are Nov. 19-20 from noon-5 p.m., Nov. 21 from noon-8 p.m. and Nov. 22 from noon-7 p.m. with visits from Santa from noon-2 p.m. Saturday. The Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center is located at 925 4th Ave. For more information on the event, visit www.keithalbee.com.
Abby Ayes can be contacted at ayes@marshall.edu.
