A Frontier Christmas at Sinking Creek
"A Frontier Christmas at Sinking Creek” is a homespun, outdoor drama set in 1783. It tells two stories. First, you will meet the Talbot and Haile families, who were among the earliest colonial settlers of the Watauga River valley, arriving and beginning to settle near Sycamore Shoals in Elizabethton around 1770. The founding pastor of Sinking Creek Baptist Church was Rev. Matthew Talbot. Several others joined him in the move from Bedford County, Virginia, including the families of his brothers-in-law—Nicholas, Meshach, Abednego, and John Haile.
The young people of the church have some surprises in store for their family and community. They have prepared a special program called “The Journey to Christmas” to celebrate the first Christmas in their newly built log church. The story within the story is a traveling nativity. It spans the Old Testament up to the birth of the Messiah, explaining who Jesus would be and why He would leave the glories of heaven to come to earth as a babe in a manger.
To culminate the drama, visitors will get to experience a mini-Christmas Eve service in the historic building built in 1783. Please join us as we celebrate the birth of Christ with this unique presentation about an Appalachian Christmas on the far reaches of the frontier at the end of the Revolutionary War.
You will have four opportunities to see “A Frontier Christmas at Sinking Creek.” It will be presented on Friday and Saturday nights, Dec. 13, 14, 20, and 21. Guests will gather by the pavilion kitchen for refreshments as they wait to enter the first scene. Small groups will depart about every 15 to 20 minutes and will be guided to each scene. The first group will begin its Journey to Christmas about 5 p.m., and the last group will enter around 8 p.m. Wear your most comfortable walking shoes, bundle up, and bring a rain poncho, just in case! We hope to have a golf cart or two for those who may find it too difficult to walk on our gravel path.
The young people of the church have some surprises in store for their family and community. They have prepared a special program called “The Journey to Christmas” to celebrate the first Christmas in their newly built log church. The story within the story is a traveling nativity. It spans the Old Testament up to the birth of the Messiah, explaining who Jesus would be and why He would leave the glories of heaven to come to earth as a babe in a manger.
To culminate the drama, visitors will get to experience a mini-Christmas Eve service in the historic building built in 1783. Please join us as we celebrate the birth of Christ with this unique presentation about an Appalachian Christmas on the far reaches of the frontier at the end of the Revolutionary War.
You will have four opportunities to see “A Frontier Christmas at Sinking Creek.” It will be presented on Friday and Saturday nights, Dec. 13, 14, 20, and 21. Guests will gather by the pavilion kitchen for refreshments as they wait to enter the first scene. Small groups will depart about every 15 to 20 minutes and will be guided to each scene. The first group will begin its Journey to Christmas about 5 p.m., and the last group will enter around 8 p.m. Wear your most comfortable walking shoes, bundle up, and bring a rain poncho, just in case! We hope to have a golf cart or two for those who may find it too difficult to walk on our gravel path.