PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Christmas Village is officially open in Center City. This year, of course, things look different.
COVID-19 restrictions are in place, like the addition of social distancing ambassadors.
“They’re actually trained by the city,” said Tobias Fischer, who helps with the Christmas Village setup. “They make sure that everyone’s following the rules, that everyone’s wearing their masks, not eating while walking around.”
Food isn’t interspersed among the shops like it has been. Instead, there’s a separate food court with three designated seating areas.
“We start on the left with the traditional mulled wine,” Fischer explained. “Down this way, we have the raclette cheese, the big wheel that you scratch off and put it on a sandwich. We have Belgian fries and spaetzle, which is kind of like a German mac and cheese.
“We also have the big outdoor grill for German bratwurst and schnitzel. New this year, we have the French toast bites.”
To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Christmas Village is also limiting the number of people allowed in the LOVE Park space to 250 at a time.
“There’s an entrance where people count the number of people that come in,” said Fischer, “and then the exit, people know how many people are inside.”
For more details on the food and guidelines at Christmas Village, listen to the KYW Newsradio original podcast What’s Cooking on the RADIO.COM app.
