Highlights Archives
Three Historic Sites to Celebrate Christmas
Christmas festivities at three of the Wisconsin Historical Society's historic sites will shed light on how 19th-century Wisconsinites celebrated the holiday in three regions of the state during different decades. Old World Wisconsin, near Eagle in Waukesha County, Villa Louis, on the banks of the Mississippi River in Prairie du Chien, and Wade House in Sheboygan County's village of Greenbush, all have elaborate holiday events planned.
Old World Wisconsin will celebrate The Spirit of Christmas Past on Saturday and Sunday, December 6-7 and December 13-14. Visitors of all ages will enjoy the spectacle of the outdoor museum's 1870s crossroads village, decorated for the holidays, as they stroll its streets and join in singing hymns with carolers inside St. Peter's Church. This year's celebration focuses on the ethnic traditions that 19th-century immigrants to Wisconsin brought with them from their homelands, with special attention to Bohemian (Czech), German and Irish customs.
At Caldwell Farmers' Club Hall, visitors can warm up with a cup of hot cocoa or coffee, then listen as Father Christmas, attired in his historic robes, regales them with his 'Twas the Night Before Christmas story. And it might be a good idea to bring a camera to take advantage of a photo opportunity to be pictured with this historic figure. An opportunity to do some last-minute Christmas shopping also awaits in the museum gift shop, stocked with a wide variety of unique gift items with a historic flavor.
Some folks will want to extend their Old World Christmas experience into the evening as a guest at an Irish Holiday Dinner the same two weekends. The festively decorated, octagonal Clausing Barn will provide the venue for an evening of fine Irish cuisine, music and dancing (reservations required).
At the Villa Louis the focus will be on a wealthy Victorian family's celebration of the holidays during An 1890s Christmas Holiday on Saturday and Sunday, December 6-7, and December 13-14. Visitors can explore the decorated halls of the elegantly restored mansion, then experience three faces of the holiday season: preparing for a visit from St. Nicholas, Christmas Day in the morning, and a New Year open house.
Wade House will turn the clock back to the 1860s during A Wade House Christmas on Saturday and Sunday, December 6-7. Visitors can enjoy a horse-drawn wagon ride before settling in to experience the beauty and simplicity of a mid-19th-century Christmas celebration by the earliest Yankee and German settlers of the tiny village of Greenbush.
:: Posted December 1, 2008
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