About Our Program
Spend a relaxing holiday with your host family in the beautiful rolling farmland of Lancaster County. Hinkletown is located in south-central Pennsylvania and families from several churches invite you to share the joy of a Christian Christmas with them.
Some of our host families offer a home-stay program. You will be part of your host family's traditional holiday activities and celebrations. We can guarantee you will meet lots of family members and have some great meals with lots of good food. You and your host family can decide if you wish to meet other students in the program and possibly share activities with other host families. Some families will visit nearby sites or cities, others will include you in their ordinary lives.
If you are part of our activities program, you will meet other students at the Student Center every day for fun activities together. We have lots of fun things planned for you to do! You will be with your host family for evenings, weekends and the Christmas and New Years Day holidays.
The Lancaster area is well known for its Amish and Mennonite peoples. Because of their religious convictions, the Amish live as people did over 100 years ago, driving horses and wagons and not using electricity. The Mennonites share similar beliefs with the Amish, but interpret them differently in their more modern life styles. We hope that you and your host family will explore these contrasting lifestyles that exist in our culture.
Our program has two required group activities. We have planned a tour of Lancaster County for you. This will last all day and include a meal at an Amish house, information about the Mennonite people, a trip to the PA Christmas Museum and possibly some shopping.
We also will have an International Dinner where you will be invited to bring a traditional food from your country to share with everyone. The host families will also bring a food from their tradition. We will visit and play games after the meal.
The Harrisburg CIH program has invited our students to join them on their bus trips to Washington DC and to New York City. These trips are a full day and host families are invited to join the group.
See our Program Activities for more details.