BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Ready, Set, Christmas City!
In the first episode of the new Hallmark series "Ready, Set, Glow!" host Wes Brown strolls down Main Street and exclaims that Bethlehem "embraces the spirit of the season like no other."
The three-part show, which debuted Thursday, Dec. 12, on Hallmark+ streaming service, is available now.
In each episode, Brown meets four families whose Christmas lights and decorations have impacted their communities.
While there aren't any Christmas homes featured in the Bethlehem segment (the bit is about five minutes long), a cheery-appearing Brown walks in front of the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.
"People from around the world come here to celebrate the holidays."Hallmark "Ready, Set, Glow" Host Wes Brown
"The epicenter of their celebration is the Hotel Bethlehem," Brown said during the show's opening. "The city was founded right here where the hotel stands today on Christmas Eve in 1741."
Brown, who has appeared in more than 18 Hallmark Christmas movies, stayed at the hotel with the film crew last December while they were filming for the new series.
That was just seven months before the city received the designation of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"People from around the world come here to celebrate the holidays," he said to the camera.
Ornament-making at Christkindlmarkt
The host's next stop on the show was to ArtsQuest's Christkindlmarkt, the holiday-themed market on the SteelStacks campus.
Brown tells viewers the German-inspired market is filled with "the sights, sounds, and sense of Christmas joy and is a place where shoppers can find "handcrafted gifts and savory delicacies."
"It's a treasure trove!" Brown said while smiling broadly.
On the episode, Brown is shown how to make a glass-blowing ornament by ArtQuest instructors Joe Capparell and Heidi Wrobel.
"Is it dangerous?" Brown asked. (It's hotter than lava, they said).
" Two thousand years of glass blowing, this is still the best way we've come to get our glass off the pipe."ArtQuest instructors Joe Capparell
During the bit, Capparell explained what frit, or crushed colored glass, is used for during the process.
"It's like standing sugar, just don't eat it," Capparell said, jokingly.
Capparell then showed him how to turn the blowpipe in the furnace.
"We're going to turn it really slow, just like a rotisserie chicken," he told Brown.
Wrobel demonstrated a wooden tool used to shield the body when the glass ornament comes out of the boiler.
" Don't burn your flannel," Capparell said, teasingly.
At the glass studio, Brown also learned how to use a blowpipe to inflate the ornament and a baseball bat to take the glass off the long pipe.
" Two thousand years of glass blowing, this is still the best way we've come to get our glass off the pipe," Capparell said.
Filming in Bethlehem
Before he left Christkindlmarkt, Brown tried to make two Christmas ornaments.
" First ornament went really well," he said. "Second try, I think I'm going to have to go martini glass."
The news of Hallmark filming at ArtsQuest was announced last December. Organizers at the time were not allowed to disclose which show it was.
The Christmas City-based love comes a year after the Hallmark Channel broadcast a film, "Miracle in Bethlehem, Pa," on the Hallmark Movie & Mysteries channel.
But that movie was shot entirely in Winnipeg, Canada, with only still images of the local Bethlehem added later.
All in all, the first episode of "Ready, Set, Glow," seemed to warm hearts.
