Christmas Candle Tea at Raleigh Moravian Church 2026

Each year on the first Saturday in December, members of Raleigh Moravian Church don 18th century costumes, pick up their band instruments, candle molds, cookie cutters and star patterns and welcome thousands of neighbors into their celebration of Advent. All afternoon, the sanctuary is filled with holiday music. In the narthex, visitors enjoy discovering year-to-year changes in the elaborate nativity scene -- or putz, to Moravians. Members of the church band play outside several times throughout the day. Hosts and hostesses serve sugarcake and hot coffee, Moravian style -- with plenty of milk and sugar -- to shoppers eager to stock up on Moravian cookies, stars, handmade beeswax candles, and much more. Members of the church demonstrate traditional crafts that remain part of Moravian church practice today. Church members, for example, make and trim all of the beeswax candles used in the Christmas Candle Lovefeast services. A recent addition to Christmas Candle Tea is the Giving Tree, a successful partnership with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Raleigh Moravian Church encourages visitors to bring non-perishable food or monetary donations and place them under the tree.

Last updated October 22, 2026