Heading to Noel Night? There's one big change this year

DETROIT (WJBK) - Detroit's annual Noel Night is a holiday open house, of sorts, in the city. Museums, restaurants and shops participate and have deals and holiday activities. You can also catch horse-drawn carriage rides, caroling and more. 

This year Noel Night is Saturday, December 1 -- and will be a little different. The special day is split into two time events: the daytime hours and nighttime hours. Daytime activities will take place in the cultural center, with nighttime happening in Midtown. 

"The main change we've made this year is really a change in the overall format of the event. After 45 years, we're moving to sort of a daytime-nighttime event," explains Susan Mosey, Executive Director of Midtown Detroit, Inc. 

During the daytime hours of 11-5, she explains, the major cultural center institutions will be open and free to the public with holiday programming. 

"Everything you've known and loved about Noel Night will still be in tact, but we are doing it from 11-5 at those institutions. Then, after 5 o'clock, everything opens in Midtown," she says. "Think culture by day, drinking, dining, dancing - lots of family activities by night."

She said activities will stretch this year all the way down to District Detroit, too, ending at Charlotte. And even if there's bad weather, there will still plenty of indoor activities. 

You can hear more about Noel Night from Mosey in the video player above, as well as a special performance from The Detroit Actor's Theatre Company. They'll be performing through the day Saturday at the Detroit Science Center. 

For more details about Noel Night, visit www.noelnight.org.