On Friday the Roanoke Rapids Parks and Recreation Department will host Christmas at the Canal and on Tuesday night will host the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band which will perform a free holiday concert at the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.

Christmas at the Canal

The free event will be held both inside and outside the Roanoke Canal Museum.

It runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

There will be a fire pit outside with s’mores, hot chocolate and coffee available, said Ryan Newsome, cultural resources leader for the city.

The Roanoke Rapids High School Chorus will perform outside by the fire.

This will be the second year consecutive year of the event. “It went really well good last year,” Newsome said. “We had over 200 people.”

One of the highlights of the event is attendees will be able to have photos taken with Santa free of charge. The Grinch can also be seen at the event.

Inside the museum there will Christmas-related crafts and games for children. The children can make cinnamon stick ornaments, play pin the nose on the snowman and play a game of throw the marshmallows in the Christmas wreath.

Parks and Recreation Director John Simeon the event was “one of the best Christmas program we had in our department. I think it’s the outside activities combined with the inside activities.”

Concert

Simeon said there are approximately 100 tickets left for the Holiday Memories in Blue show at the theater. The concert starts at 7 p.m.

The free tickets can be obtained at T.J. Davis, the police department, the Roanoke Valley Veterans Museum and the theater.

The Heritage of America Band contacted the city saying it wanted to do a free concert for the community. “This is a great opportunity for the community to come out and participate in a military Christmas show,” Simeon said.

The concert is expected to be the final one held under the city’s ownership of the venue. “I think having a free concert, especially a Christmas show, is a nice way for the city to show its appreciation for support of the theater,” he said.

The concert will highlight 70 years of Air Force holiday memories.

Traditional and new music will be performed by several of the Heritage of America Band’s ensembles, featuring holiday selections from each decade of Air Force history.

Additionally, a multimedia presentation featuring stories of America’s veterans will be highlighted during the concert.

The band was one of the original Army Air Corps bands, created by order of the Secretary of War on October 1, 1941, and assigned to Barksdale Field, Louisiana. In June 1946, after a short stay at Brooks Field, Texas, the band arrived at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, its current home.