About

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 50 year history, the event has generated more than 7.5 million dollars benefiting thousands of people, as the proceeds support:

Special hearing and speech programs at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center

Teens and adults recovering from traumatic head injury and stroke at the Vanderbilt Medical Center Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute

Funds and scholarships for aspiring artists at the Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN

The Village brings together 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. 2011 was the most successful year in our history. Chairmen Ann McKinney and Kathy Nevill announced that a $460,000 donation, the largest in our history, was made to our philanthropies. Christmas Village 2012 will be led by chairmen Kendra Melnyk and Angela Bostelman.

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 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.