Pennsylvania
‘Tis the season: Western Pennsylvania has plenty of holiday attractions
While Kaufmann’s department store decked out for Christmas in Downtown Pittsburgh isn’t on the list of Pittsburgh holiday musts anymore, there are still plenty of things to see and do during the holidays in the city. These are the places and events that are quintessential Pittsburgh at Christmastime.
“A Musical Christmas Carol”
It’s not Christmas without “A Christmas Carol.” The Pittsburgh CLO presents “A Musical Christmas Carol” on select days from Dec. 15 to 23 at the Byham Theater, Downtown. Michael Cerveris returns as Ebenezer Scrooge for the Charles Dickens classic. Joining Cerveris is Aubree Liscotti as Tiny Tim, Tim Hartman as Mr. Fezziwig, Christine Laitta as Mrs. Fezziwig, and Lisa Ann Goldsmith as Mrs. Cratchit.
Details: pittsburghclo.org
AWCommunity Day:
Holiday Edition
The August Wilson African American Community Center’s AWCommunity Day: Holiday Edition is Dec. 16 and celebrates Kwanzaa. It features hands-on activities, dancers and drummers. The Flow Band and Alumni Theater Company will perform live and local vendors will offer jewelry, clothing and art.
The event is free but registration is recommended.
Details: 412-339-1011 or awaacc.org
Carnegie Museum of Art
Through Jan. 7, the Neapolitan presepio — an elaborate nativity scene recreated with handmade miniature figures arranged in a detailed panorama of 18th-century life in Naples — is on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland. It includes models of humans, animals, angelic figures and architectural elements. This year it is located in the museum’s Scaife galleries.
The museum is also decorated with the Carnegie Trees — Fraser fir trees lit and trimmed with handmade ornaments in the Hall of Architecture. Since 1961, the trees have been the signature event of the Women’s Committee of Carnegie Museum of Art.
Details: 412-622-3131 or carnegie
art.org
Carnegie Science Center
A miniature railroad under the Christmas tree oozes nostalgia. The Carnegie Science Center’s Miniature Railroad & Village was originally created by Charles Bowdish of Brookville in 1919, and it keeps growing — its newest addition is the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin.
Details: 412-237-3400 or carnegie
sciencecenter.org
Feast of the Seven Fishes
The Italians created the Feast of the Seven Fishes for their families on Christmas Eve. Just like everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, we can all be Italian on Christmas Eve. Shopping with your family at places such as Wholey’s in the Strip District or DeLallo Italian Marketplace in Jeannette to get fresh seafood for the meal is an event in and of itself during the holidays.
Details: wholey.com, jeannette.delallo.com
Frick Pittsburgh
A great local example of Christmas past preserved is Clayton. The residence from the Gilded Age, the 40-year period following the end of the Civil War, was the home of the Henry Clay Frick family from 1882 to 1905. The meticulously preserved 23-room mansion is decorated for the holidays through Dec. 31.
Details: 412-371-0600 or thefrickpittsburgh.org
Gateway Clipper Fleet
Cruises with Santa Claus are at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 23. There will be a dance party and photo opportunities as guests get to experience holiday sights of Pittsburgh on the river, including seeing Point State Park’s Christmas tree.
Details: 412-355-7980 or gatewayclipper.com
Gingerbread houses
The 21st annual Citiparks’ Gingerbread House Display and Competition is happening at the City-County Building through Jan. 5. This competition invites people of all ages to design and build gingerbread houses. A People’s Choice Award is given and voted on by Pittsburghers.
The free display will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Details: pittsburghpa.gov
Hanukkah events
Hanukkah is an absolutely beautiful time in Pittsburgh.
Chabad of Greenfield is hosting a Hanukkah celebration from 4-5:30 p.m. Dec. 10 on Murray Avenue.
Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Grand Menorah Parade is at 5 p.m. Dec. 12. Vehicles with illuminated menorahs will gather at 200 JHF Drive in Squirrel Hill and take a route on several Squirrel Hill streets before ending in Schenley Plaza in Oakland.
Details: 412-421-0546 or chabadpgh.com or chabadofgreenfield.com
Harlem Globetrotters
Just like returns to department stores every year on the day after Christmas, the Harlem Globetrotters come to town. The tradition continues with their basketball skills and court entertainment at PPG Paints Arena at 1 and 6 p.m. Dec. 26.
Details: 412-642-1800 or ppgpaintsarena.com
Heinz Hall
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra presents its annual Highmark Holiday Pops performances on select dates between Dec. 15 and 23 at Heinz Hall. Holiday music by the orchestra and Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh includes many of the classics. You will find yourself singing along. The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School will also be onstage.
Details: 412-392-4900 or pittsburghsymphony.org
Highmark First Night Pittsburgh
First Night Pittsburgh is the place to be in the city on New Year’s Eve.
The event takes place in the Cultural District (Liberty and Penn avenues, Downtown) with live music, dance, theater, visual arts, magic, kids activities and a community parade. There are fireworks at 6 p.m. and midnight. This year’s headlining performer is New Orleans-based Lyndsey Smith, a former Pittsburgh resident. The evening will culminate with the countdown to midnight, and the Future of Pittsburgh Ball will rise nearly 75 feet as fireworks fill the sky.
Details: 412-456-6666 or TrustArts.org
Kennywood
Seeing Kennywood in the wintertime is a completely different experience than in the summer. The annual Holiday Lights transforms Kennywood into a winter wonderland with more than 2 million lights, 20 rides, seasonal culinary delights and a nightly tree lighting at the tallest Christmas tree in Pennsylvania, standing at 100 feet.
Details: 412- 461-0500 or kennywood.com
Nationality Rooms
Check out how other cultures celebrate the season — perhaps your own ancestors. The 31 Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh were designed to celebrate the cultures of various ethnic groups that settled in Allegheny County. Each is decorated for the holidays in a way that shares something about the ethnic heritage of each space.
Details: 412-624-6000 or nationalityrooms.pitt.edu
“The Nutcracker”
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s holiday classic “The Nutcracker” runs Dec. 8-28 at the Benedum Center. This year’s production features 10 local celebrity walk-on roles in the party scene, making it a traditional story with a Pittsburgh flair.
Details: 412-281-0360 or pbt.org
Oglebay Festival of Lights
It’s located in Wheeling, W.Va, but Western Pennsylvanians flock to this holiday light drive-thru experience that encompasses 6 miles and 100 lighted attractions. It is lit up from dusk to midnight through Jan. 7 at 465 Lodge Drive in Wheeling.
Details: 877-436-1797 or oglebay.com
Overly’s Country Christmas
Closer to home, the old-fashioned Christmas village experience and light display in Greensburg has been a tradition since the 1950s. Open on select days through Dec. 30, there are model trains, photo opportunities with Santa Claus and shopping in the general store.
Details: 724-423-1400 or overlys.com
Peoples Gas Holiday Market
Those looking to add local or unique flair to the gifts that they give should shop the 12th annual market, where vendors in wooden chalets sell everything from candles and clothing to jewelry, art and pottery through Dec. 24 in Market Square.
Details: 412-566-4190 or downtownpittsburghholidays.com
Pittsburgh Botanic Garden
Another light display is at Pittsburgh Botanic Garden’s “Dazzling Nights Pittsburgh,” which features 1 million lights throughout the garden. Guests can stroll under dozens of handmade Moroccan lanterns hanging from the treetops, through a tunnel of giant stars and on a walkway with interactive lights that illuminate when people step on them.
The display runs select nights through Jan. 1 at 799 Pinkerton Run Road in Collier.
Details: 412-444-4464 or pittsburghbotanicgarden.org
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
The Winter Flower Show “Holiday Magic! Winter Flower Show and Light Garden: Season’s Greenings” feature colorful poinsettias, an 18-foot high sphere tree of metal cages, gnomes and thousands of lights and decorations through Jan. 7 in Oakland.
Details: 412-622-6914 or phipps.conservatory.org
Pittsburgh Creche
The nativity in front of U.S. Steel Tower (600 Grant St., Downtown) is on display through Jan. 7, and it’s the only authorized replica of the nativity scene St. John Paul II commissioned for the Vatican.
Details: 412-456-3000 or Facebook.com/DioceseofPittsburgh
Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium
Zoo Lights is a reason to visit the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium in the wintery months — and you can stay warm because it’s a drive-thru event. Thousands of LED lights transform the park into a winter wonderland along with more than 150 animal-shaped illuminated figures, an animated recreation of Eat’n Park’s classic Christmas tree commercial, as well as Daniel Tiger and friends from Fred Rogers Productions.
Drive-thru runs select nights through Dec. 30.
Details: 412-665-3640 or pittsburghzoo.org
Senator John Heinz History Center
“A Very Merry Pittsburgh” is open through Dec. 31 in the Strip District, showing family keepsakes, artifacts, film and imagery that depict how Western Pennsylvanians have celebrated Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa and more. Nostalgic artifacts from Downtown Pittsburgh department stores Kaufmann’s and Horne’s are on display along with historic holiday gifts from the past 150 years and a hands-on play area with retro toys.
Details: 412-454-6000 or heinzhistorycenter.org
Spirits of Giving From Around the World
Check out a free display of life-size Santas and original paintings that depict holiday celebrations around the world through Jan. 1 in One PPG and Two PPG Place lobbies. Each represents a tradition and culture from select countries and is dressed in traditional Christmas garb.
Details: ppgplace.com
UPMC Rink at PPG Place
Nothing says holidays like ice skating and hot chocolate. The UPMC Rink at PPG Place — with the Instagramable 66-foot Christmas tree in the center — is open through Feb. 25. The rink is two-thirds larger than the Rockefeller Center ice rink in New York and two-thirds the size of a standard National Hockey League rink.
Details: 412-394-3641 or ppgplace.com
Let us know if we’ve missed anything.
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact JoAnne by email at jharrop@triblive.com or via Twitter .
While Braman agrees it would be difficult to take on as a prosecutor, he said that could change as more young people move into positions of influence.
“As the catastrophes escalate and as young people who face their entire future in an environment dominated by increasing climate harms, [and] start to join the jury pool, start to become prosecutors, start to become judges and start to become shareholders, I think that the writing’s on the wall,” Braman said, “and I hope that everybody, including everyone inside fossil fuel companies, starts to pay attention to that.”
But Weber said prosecutors would still have to convince a judge or jury to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.
Fossil fuel companies have permits to conduct their business, essentially government permission to do what they are doing, another way for the company to defend itself in court.
If the companies are charged and convicted of risking or causing a catastrophe, the fines are in the range of $15,000 to $25,000 per count, Weber said.
“Is that going to deter a multimillion dollar company? Is that going to interfere with the operation of their business and the money that they’re making? I don’t think so,” Weber said. “I mean, did Energy Transfer go out of business by that criminal prosecution?”
“Maybe you put the CEO in jail,” Weber said. “And do you think that the other fossil fuel companies are going to say, ‘That guy went to jail, so we shouldn’t do what we’re doing anymore’? No, they’re going to do what drug dealers do. Drug dealers say, ‘Well, that guy got caught for drug dealing because he’s stupid. We’re not stupid.’”
‘Win by losing’
Environmental attorney Rich Raiders said there are a lot of questions with the strategy, but says the article does serve an important purpose.
“The idea behind these articles isn’t necessarily to come to an answer, but to get people to start thinking about how to address a question. And in that respect, it does that and it does it well,” Raiders said.
Raiders represented homeowners who sued Energy Transfer over the Mariner East pipeline construction. He said a case like this would be a battle of the experts, but there are fundamental questions the article does not address about whether the charges would stick.
“What do you have to show responsible for climate change to meet the definition of a catastrophe?” Raiders said. “What is that level of threshold that you have to show before you can write a complaint that actually can survive objections? And how do you prove that it was the fossil fuel emissions caused by the marketing aspects of these companies to get you far enough that you can meet this definition? We don’t know.”
Raiders said the goal of this type of prosecution could be to get a large settlement, similar to what happened with the tobacco companies settlement or a previously proposed Sackler family settlement over opioids.
In that case, it makes sense to bring a case where you “win by losing.”
“And maybe that’s what a case like this does. It’s not necessarily to win the case, but it’s to move the needle,” Raiders said.
For example, he said it could get the legislature to take action. But it also requires someone willing to lose.
“I think this is an interesting discussion in the long term for how to get people to think about the problem,” Raiders said. “And as a thought piece it does have some merit. But will you see something like that filed in the next 12 months? No, not anytime soon.”
Braman, one of the co-authors of the piece, is more optimistic.
“We desperately need some kind of solution that will allow the public to hold these massive corporate criminal actors accountable and have them really address the harms that they’re generating,” he said.
Pennsylvania
Cash reward offered for information leading to Pennsylvania cold case homicide resolution
LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — A cash reward is being offered for anyone who has information surrounding a 2021 cold case homicide in Lebanon County.
The $2,000 reward is for anyone who has information that can solve the case of the death of 35-year-old Zachary Lauderman, according to State Police.
Lauderman was found dead with two gunshot wounds to his head in his home, located along Ulsh lane in Bethel Township Sept. 10 just before 3 p.m., according to Troopers.
Anyone who knows something is asked to contact PSP Tips at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477), or they can go online to submit a tip by clicking here.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The Philadelphia Auto Show is about to get underway at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
It kicks off this weekend, but on Thursday Mayor Cherelle Parker and auto show executives gave us a preview of all the fun.
Organizers say this will be one of the largest shows in its 123-year history.
Car enthusiasts will get a chance to see the latest lineup from manufacturers around the globe.
“With more manufacturers, the longest track, Camp Jeep back on display… there truly is something for everyone,” said Jeff Glanzmann of Glanzmann Subaru.
That also includes classic cars and Hollywood rides from favorite films and shows, all of which will be showcased on the 600,000 square foot exhibit floor.
The Auto Show opens to the public on Saturday and runs until Jan. 20.
6abc is a proud sponsor.
Don’t miss our Philadelphia Auto Show special, which airs Saturday at 7 p.m.
For tickets and more information, visit this page on 6abc.com.
Copyright © 2025 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.
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