The Conestoga Area Historical Society, 51 Kendig Road, Conestoga, will host its annual Candlelight Christmas on Saturday, Dec. 10, from 5 to 9 p.m. The event will include live music and refreshments.

During the event, the paths around the museum grounds will be lit by luminarias, and each building will be fully decorated for the holidays. Guests will have an opportunity to tour the property and its many buildings of historical significance. Volunteers dressed in period-accurate clothing will be stationed throughout the museum grounds, many of them operating different shops such as the tin shop, carpentry station, weaving shop, blacksmith shop and pottery works.

At 7 p.m., members of the Penn Manor High School choir will perform Christmas music in Gundel Hall. Before and after the choir's performance, a pianist will perform several Christmas pieces throughout the property. A prize drawing for a quilt donated by a member of the historical society will take place at 9 p.m.

"We're starting to see a lot of younger people come to the museum. We have six new volunteers this year who bring their children to the museum," said Jim Kauffman of the historical society. "The kids always love seeing the blacksmith shop and the other craft stations."

The historical society will serve cookies, punch, coffee and wassail, an old-time English beverage, in Gundel Hall. Each year, all of the refreshments are donated by the community.

"Our goal is always to have people visit the museum and learn about the area's history," said Kauffman. "The museum gives people an opportunity to see what this place was like in the old days." Guests of the museum will have an opportunity to learn about the iron works at Safe Harbor, where pieces of local railroads were created, the original native encampments of the Conestoga tribe and a plethora of other historically significant sites.

The museum recently added a compilation of diaries to its collection that belonged to a local funeral director in the late 1800s. The historical society is currently in the process of transcribing each diary and making all of them accessible on its website. "The diaries have not only information on those who died during that time, but also the lives of people who lived in the Conestoga area," said Kauffman.