Residents of the Hattiesburg Historic Neighborhood are busy folding paper bags and turning them into luminaries for the 33rd annual Victorian Candlelit Christmas, which will be held Dec. 12-13 in the 115-acre, National Register district just south of downtown. A portion of the activities will be at Bay Street Presbyterian Church, 202 Short Bay St., the oldest surviving church structure in the city.

“It’s festive,” said artist Donna Woods, who sets out six-seven dozen luminaries each year, lining her driveway, sidewalks, front porch and flower beds with the glowing bags. “It looks so Christmasy. It’s a neat time to see your neighbors. A lot of people have parties one night or the other.”
More than 15,000 luminaries – votive candles in sand-filled paper bags – line the streets, sidewalks and porch rails of more than 400 houses and businesses in the neighborhood for one weekend each December. The center of activities is the Walthall Center on Rebecca Avenue, between Court and Walnut streets. There visitors can enjoy entertainment and refreshments or catch a horse-drawn carriage for a tour of the neighborhood. Carriage ride tickets are $5 and will be sold from dark to 9 p.m. both nights at the Walthall Center.

Visitors can also catch one of two trolleys that will be circulating Saturday with stops throughout downtown and the historic neighborhood as part of Hattiesburg’s Holidays in the Hub, which include the Holiday Art Walk in downtown.