Finding Your Way Through Snyder Crissman Funeral Home Services
I have spent more time than I care to admit navigating the funeral industry, and Snyder Crissman consistently comes up as one of the places people in the south central Pennsylvania area turn to when they need straightforward, competent help. They are not a chain operation. They do not have corporate offices dictating pricing from somewhere else. That matters more than most people realize. The Snyder Crissman Funeral Home has been operating out of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania for several decades. It was founded by members of the Snyder and Crissman families, and the facility has served as a local institution through multiple generations of families using their services. What you will find there is not the polished, sterile atmosphere of a corporate funeral provider. It is a smaller operation where the staff tends to know the families they work with, often by name, and frequently across multiple generations of the same family. The practical side of what they do is fairly standard. They handle traditional funerals, memorial services, cremation arrangements, pre-planning consultations, and basic funeral directing paperwork. The thing that separates them from larger operations is how they handle the logistics. When a death occurs at a hospital or a nursing home, Snyder Crissman can typically arrange transport within a relatively short window. I have seen this happen in maybe two to three hours during normal business hours, though overnight or weekend calls may take a bit longer depending on staff availability.
One issue I have encountered with this type of smaller, independent funeral home is that their scheduling flexibility can be both a strength and a weakness. On one hand, the owners and staff are often directly reachable by phone and willing to accommodate unusual requests. On the other hand, because they are a smaller team, they may not have the same breadth of backup staff as a large chain. If you need something outside their normal hours or a service that requires coordination with multiple venues, the logistics can get tighter. The workaround is simple: call ahead and get things scheduled early. Do not wait until the day of the service to figure out whether a visitation room is available or whether they can accommodate a specific religious officiant. They will try their best, but smaller operations simply have less margin for last-minute changes. Pricing is another area where people tend to get tripped up. Snyder Crissman, like most Pennsylvania funeral homes, provides a General Price List as required by the FTC Funeral Rule. The baseline funeral package with viewing and burial typically runs in the range of $7,000 to $12,000 depending on casket selection and ceremony details. A direct cremation without any services is generally between $2,000 and $4,000. These numbers are approximate and will vary based on the specifics of each case. The important thing to understand is that many of the line items on a funeral bill are pass-through costs. The cemetery charges, the crematory fees, the obituary publication costs, and the clergy honoraria are not profits for the funeral home. The actual service fee that the funeral home keeps is typically a fraction of the total. People often assume they are paying 50 percent markup on everything, which is not how it works. The service fee covers the labor, the facility use, the vehicles, and the professional guidance throughout the process. If you are considering pre-planning, Snyder Crissman does offer that option. Pre-planning locks in current prices and relieves the burden from your family later. The downside is that pre-paid funeral contracts are not always as protective as people think. In Pennsylvania, pre-need funeral funds can be placed in a trust or an insurance assignment. If they go with a trust, the money should be relatively safe. If they use an insurance policy, the policy is owned by you and you can cancel it if circumstances change, but you need to keep up with the premiums. I have seen cases where families assumed a pre-payment was fully protected and then discovered later that the contract terms were not as favorable as they were told. Always ask to see the funding mechanism in writing and verify who holds the funds.
Another thing that catches people off guard is the difference between a funeral and a memorial service. Snyder Crissman can arrange either, and the cost difference can be significant. A full funeral with the body present, a viewing or visitation, and a formal ceremony at the facility or a place of worship will cost more because it requires embalming, preparation, facility use for multiple hours, and staff time spread across several days. A memorial service held a week or two after cremation, with no viewing and the body not present, is substantially less expensive. If budget is a concern and the family is open to it, a memorial service is a perfectly valid and dignified option. The staff at Snyder Crissman will not judge you for choosing the simpler route. They deal with this conversation regularly and understand that financial constraints are a real factor. The facility itself is located on West Front Street in New Cumberland, which is easily accessible from I-83 and just outside Lancaster. It is a modest building, not grandiose, but functional and kept in good condition. The visitation rooms are adequately sized for most family gatherings. If you have an exceptionally large family or expect more than a couple hundred attendees, it is worth asking whether they can accommodate that or whether they have arrangements with nearby churches or community halls they regularly work with. They usually do, but it is better to confirm before you commit to anything. One specific edge case I want to mention involves out-of-state arrangements. If a family member dies while traveling or living out of state and you need to have Snyder Crissman handle the final arrangements locally, the logistics get more complex. You will need to coordinate with a funeral home in the other state for the initial transfer of the body to Pennsylvania. Snyder Crissman can handle the receiving end, including any necessary permits and transportation from the airport or the out-of-state facility, but the first leg of the journey requires a separate provider. I learned this the hard way when a client tried to book Snyder Crissman without realizing they also needed a companion service in Ohio. Once we identified the gap, we connected them with a partner home in Cleveland, and Snyder Crissman took over from there. The total cost was still reasonable, but it required calling two separate providers and synchronizing the paperwork. Factor in an extra day or two and an additional $1,500 to $3,000 for the interstate transfer if this scenario applies to you.
Get the Full Details
For people who are researching options, I would recommend calling Snyder Crissman directly and asking for a walkthrough of their current service packages. Do not rely solely on online information. Prices change, packages get revised, and the people who actually work there can give you accurate, current details. Ask about what is included in each tier, what is optional, and where the costs can be adjusted without sacrificing the quality of the service. Most independent funeral homes are willing to work with families on customization, especially when communication is open from the start.
