originally published: 12/01/2025

Gayle Stahlhuth, photo by Annie McDonough

(WEST CAPE MAY, NJ) -- "Friendship Village ain't ever looked much more like Christmas, than it did that December, in 1912," Calliope begins her tale "A Great Tree," in which she does all she can to get the big cedar-of-Lebanon tree in the town square lit with electric lights in time for Christmas Eve.

This is one of two tales presented by Classic American Tales’ founding artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth on Friday, December 12, 2025 in the barn at Rae’s Farm. The other is O. Henry’s classic, “The Gift of the Magi” about a young couple who purchase unique presents for each other. “A Great Tree” is presented at 6:00pm and “The Gift of the Magi” at 7:30pm. Throughout the summer, Rea’s Farm offered special events on Friday nights, including on Halloween in which Stahlhuth's presentation of Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” had people asking if she would be back with Christmas stories.

Rae’s Farm is located at 400 Stevens Street, West Cape May, NJ and the whole evening is from 5:00pm – 8:00pm. The heated barn will be decorated, along with tables and chairs, and there is no entrance fee. Modestly priced dinners are available and bottles from Cape May Winery and Obscura Brewery may be purchased.

From 1999 through 2022 Stahlhuth was producing artistic director of East Lynne Theater Company where she helmed 120 productions. Recently she performed in a staged reading of Margo Hammond’s four-person comedy A New Me for Ego Actus Theatre in New York City and is currently writing a one-person show based on the diary Margaret Morris kept during the American Revolution. Performances of Margaret's Diary During a Revolution begin in March.

Next up for CAT is “Christmas Cheer” on Sunday, December 14 from 4:00pm – 6:00pm, at 121 Fourth Avenue, West Cape May, where Michèle LaRue will present "The Christmas Sing in Our Village" by Mary Wilkins Freeman and "Hoodoo McFiggin's Christmas" by Stephen Leacock. McFiggin’s Christmas” finds hilarity in a big-city boarding house and lives of choir members are revealed during the annual “Christmas Sing." Hors d’oeuvres, hot and cold drinks and wine will be served. Cost is $20 and tickets are available for purchase online.

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Michèle LaRue's numerous acting credits include performing with East Lynne Theater Company, which was founded by her late husband Warren Kliewer, who was ELTC's first producing artistic director. Credits with ELTC include William Dean Howells’ Bride Roses and Stahlhuth’s adaptation of Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle, both directed by Kliewer. She was also in The New York Idea, directed by Stahlhuth. LaRue was one of the first to read on porches as part of ELTC's Tales of the Victorians. Now, under her own title, Tales Well Told, she reads works by American writers in venues nationwide.

To learn more about CAT, visit https://www.ClassicAmericanTales.org. Some of the 2026 Season is already posted. CAT is a nonprofit theater with the mission to “Tell America’s stories one tale at a time.”