Locals and tourists who visit Historic Hotel Bethlehem during the holidays get to experience some of the most beautifully decorated Christmas trees, wreaths and an assortment of candles, stars and toy soldiers in the Christmas City. Many of those decorations have become a large part of the hotel’s and city’s holiday traditions.

Many of those elements have been retained, but newly engaged interior decorator Anthony Sierra and his design assistant Ty Cundey have taken those traditional decorations and given them a fresh appeal with different color combinations, the addition of stars, a winter wonderland theme and a few new features. Sierra and Cundey were brought on board after prior decorators Gary Berger died and Robert Averill retired.

Sierra said he and Cundey started with a 15-minute walk through the hotel and by researching photos and news articles about the hotel’s decorations. They began in earnest on Halloween night and scouted the storage bins containing the hotel’s holiday decorations. Most days, they spent 10 to 12 hours on the project.

“Everything is built on site,” Sierra said, admitting a preference for textures when doing design work. “You have to trust in what you do because you’re decorating in such a public space.”

The trees have a slightly different look as they use the colors red and black to complement houndstooth ribbons of similar colors.

The Nativity scene’s backdrop of evergreen trees now has a Star of Bethlehem on top of the tallest tree. Sprigs of evergreen boughs festoon the traditional flying geese in the 1741 on the Terrace dining area, and wreaths in that space have a snow covered look to them. Toy soldiers that are normally multicolored have been painted gold to compliment other colors.

Sierra said his favorite touch is the cherubs he added to the grand ballroom, which was occupied at the time of this tour of the decorations.

While admiring the opulently decorated Christmas trees in the hotel’s main lobby, Kelly Ronalds, director of room sales and guest experience, admitted she wondered initially how they were going to do this year’s decorations.

“It has become such a Christmas destination for generations of guests who come to do family photos by these trees,” she said.

Based on the final design done by Sierra and Cundey, that part of the hotel’s holiday traditions should have no problem continuing as well.