Each week we map out a road trip in the region. If you have a suggestion for a great one, e-mail roadtrip@post-gazette.com or write: RoadTrip The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 34 Blvd. of the Allies Pittsburgh, PA 15222

As the Harmonists did, RoadTrip went from their original settlement in the wilderness of Butler County to their final home on the Ohio River in Beaver County.

The German religious communal group, which died out in great part because it practiced celibacy, moved back to this region after a detour to Indiana and in 1825 built "Oekonomie," or Economy, at what's now Ambridge.

Today Old Economy Village is a National Historic Landmark site, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, that gives visitors a prime portal for traveling back to this curious wrinkle in time.

A fine time to go to Old Economy would be next Saturday for its traditional "Christmas at the Village." This year's theme, A Christmas Fair, re-creates a charitable or sanitary fair, an event women's groups organized to support the troops during the Civil War.

You can feel as if you're there while tradesmen in period garb demonstrate their crafts and vendors hawk their wares -- from floor cloths to baked goods to straw hats -- in the Feast Hall. At 6 p.m. that night, the Wildcat Regiment Band (re-enactors from Indiana, Pa.) will perform a grand concert of period pieces for the crowd, which will include troops from the recreated 63rd Pennsylvania Infantry.

Throughout the decorated and lantern-lit village, visitors can stop to sample music, puppet and magic lantern shows as well as German foods.

That day, there will be no guided tours, which typically are offered four times a day (twice on Sundays). There's a lot to see, so it's recommended that you allow two hours for a typical visit.

We arrived for the second morning tour on a recent Saturday and were impressed by the $4.1 million Visitor Center that opened last year. After showing us a video, our guide, in period dress, walked us through the neighborhood -- where people still live in the historic log, frame or brick homes -- to the heart of the old village, which the commonwealth took over in 1916.

	Old Economy Above: A "band box" (often used for storing hats) and a gingerbread man at Old Economy. Below: Belsnickel, the grumpy helper to the German St. Nicholas, will check his book to see if children were good or bad at Christmas at the Village at Old Economy Village on Saturday in Ambridge. Click photos for larger image.

We toured the big house where the Harmonists' founder and patriarch George Rapp lived -- and where the group stashed its savings. We also toured the adjacent formal gardens, a regular Harmonist house (with its most modest bathtub) and the Feast Hall, which is where the group dined together a few times a year. The last structure holds a re-creation of the group's natural history and arts museum as well as rooms for teaching and learning music.

Further evidence that these folks weren't all work and piety is provided by a walk down under the old store into their massive wine cellar, with a stone arched ceiling like the wine cellar beneath the Harmony Museum in Harmony, Butler County (read that installment at www.post-gazette.com/travel/roadtrip).

After the tour, we continued on a self-guided trek into the Mechanics Building, where a printer showed us his trade, and out to the Blacksmith Shop, where another volunteer used a coal fire and horseshoe nails to make spice spoons. The spoons are among the items for sale in the Visitor Center gift shop.

Old Economy Village is an easy place to overlook, as it's in our own back yard. But if you've never been and you're at all interested in history, you, too, might be surprised at this old gem, tucked into the town that built upon land the Harmonists sold to the American Bridge Co. (hence the name "Ambridge").

As our guide told us, locals are beginning to fix up some of the other old Harmonist structures. One 1826 house, where the Harmonists produced their award-winning silk, is now the Silk House Cafe, where we stopped for hot drinks (www.silkhousecafe.com).

On the stroll there, we walked around the church that was at the center of life for the Harmonists, who left Germany after breaking with the Lutheran Church.

Ironically, today it is St. John's Lutheran Church.

At 2 and 4 p.m. on Saturday, the church will host a Christmas at the Village musical program. The Old Economy Orchestra and Singers will perform a Christmas cantata, written by the Harmonists and performed on Christmas Day 1817. These nine chorales and arias range from the joyful "Schm?as Fest mit Wintergr?t; ("Deck the Festival with Wintergreen") to the introspective bass solo "O Nacht!" ("O Night!").

Admission for the Christmas celebration, which runs from 2 to 8:30 p.m., is $7 for adults and $4 for children ages 4-17 years. Between 4 and 7 p.m., a horse- drawn carriage will run from the Visitor Center (at 270 16th St., just off the main drag of Merchant Street). Find more parking and a free shuttle service at the Foodland on Merchant.

Otherwise, the village is open through Dec. 30 and reopens March 11. Regular hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. and noon-5 p.m. Sun. (closed Mon. and holidays except for Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day). Regular admission is $7 for adults, $5 for youth ages 6-17 and $6 for seniors.

For more information visit www.oldeconomyvillage.org.

Ambridge itself -- about 22 miles from Downtown on state Route 65 -- also is fun to explore. Its Light Up Night and Parade begin at 7 p.m. this Wednesday. Before we headed home, we toured Tom's Old Country Store, had a cheap lunch at the Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe and vowed to return to find one of the four local churches that sell pierogies (www.ambridgeboro.org).