About Us:
Christmas Village is one of the oldest charitable events in Nashville, supported and run entirely by volunteers from the Nashville Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club. During the 53 year history, the event has generated over 9 million dollars benefiting thousands of people, as the proceeds support:
Special hearing and speech programs at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center;
Patients recovering from traumatic brain injury at the Vanderbilt Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute; and
Funds and scholarships for aspiring artists at the Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
The Village brings together approximately 260 unique merchants, selling gifts, clothes, jewelry, antiques, holiday wares and food, and 20,000 shoppers.The first Christmas Village, held in 1961, at the Hippodrome in downtown Nashville, raised $1,000. In 2013, chairmen Holly Farley and Beth Johnson, raised $510,000 bringing cumulative donations to over $9 million. This was our most successful year in history with record-breaking ticket sales and donations.
Christmas Village 2014 will be led by Susan McDavitt and Ashley Seth. Operating Christmas Village requires more than 1,500 volunteer hours from over 200 volunteers each year. Nashville Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club members begin organizing the show in January under the direction of two volunteer co-chairs and approximately a thirty-member board. Work continues through the November event, traditionally held two weekends before Thanksgiving.
Berenice Miller Denton and Barbara White Fridrich, the first co-chairs of the event, paved the way for the tremendous success of Christmas Village today. They planned a Christmas fairyland, with beautiful and exciting gift displays from local merchants. The show started as a one-day event and has now grown into a 4 day shopping extravaganza with shoppers and merchants traveling to Nashville from around the country.