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The Christmas Village Miracle 40th Anniversary

Thursday, December 8
6:30 pm - 7:45 pm

Location: Burroughs-Saden Library

Forty years ago, an arsonist torched a simple Christmas Village in Bridgeport’s Beardsley Park destroying a spot where each year thousands of city kids got to meet Santa and enjoy Christmas. The sick act could have put a serious damper on Christmas 1982 in the city.  But Mayor Leonard S. Paoletta, blissfully unfamiliar with construction fundamentals, put in action a volunteer effort that ended with a rebuilding and opening of a new Village in just five days.

Former Mayor Paoletta and Connecticut Post columnist Michael Daly, author of “The Miracle of Christmas Village,” will discuss the episode at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 8 at the Bridgeport Burroughs-Saden Library, 925 Broad Street. Books available at $8.On Dec. 12, 1982, after the story had received increasing national attention, then-President Ronald Reagan called Paoletta at the opening and over speaker phone, called what had become known as “The Miracle of Christmas Village “…one of the most inspiring Christmas stories I’ve heard in years and years and years.”

xmas1982

Crowds wait in line to enter the PAL Christmas Village, in Bridgeport, Conn. in December, 1982. The Christmas Village reopened just days after being damaged by a fire on Dec. 7th.