The dining room at Moravian Village, which can accommodate nearly 200 guests, filled for breakfast beginning at 8 a.m. on Dec. 7. This was the 56th year that Bethlehem has sponsored a breakfast for the community to celebrate its foundation on Christmas Eve 1756.

Several of the guests who had grown up in the city said they were there for the first time – attracted in part by the opportunity to see and hear one of Bethlehem’s favorite native sons, actor and director Daniel Roebuck. Danny, as he prefers to be called, did not disappoint, giving a talk that was both moving and entertaining. A man who can’t resist a good joke, he kept the audience laughing while also delivering a powerful testimony to Bethlehem’s meaning in his life.

Organized by staff of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, the breakfast featured performances by the trombone choir of Central Moravian Church and by the Moravian Ringers. Mayor Willy Reynolds welcomed the guests. The Rev. Lindsay Altvater-Clifton gave the initial blessing, and at the conclusion of the meal The Rev. Molly Clymer, chaplain of Moravian Village, offered benediction.

The meal ended with the singing of several traditional Christmas hymns and distribution of a lighted bees-wax candle to each guest — a Moravian tradition. The Hotel Bethlehem also gave guests slices of homemade Moravian sugar cake.

The highlight of the breakfast was Danny Roebuck’s speech. Growing up in Bethlehem in the 70s, Danny attributes his interest in acting and directing to seeing “every good movie in my lifetime at the Boyd” theater – recently replaced on Broad Street by an apartment building. Roles at the Pennsylvania Playhouse also influenced him. (Coincidentally – or not – Danny’s great grandfather was the first director at the playhouse.)

“All you do is watch TV,” one of his family once told him, jokingly. In Hollywood he met the only star who was Moravian, Andy Griffith, and then worked with him in the popular series “Matlock” (still available on Apple TV).

In more recent years, Danny has directed a series of movies set in Bethlehem, most recently “Saint Nick of Bethlehem,” the story of two young adults who find direction in their difficult lives after meeting in Bethlehem over Christmas.

After the breakfast Danny stayed to greet many acquaintances, new and old, who had come to congratulate and thank him for his dedication to the Christmas City.