Old Sturbridge Village Christmas by Candlelight

Yesterday Laurie and I went to Sturbridge Village where they do a "Christmas by Candlelight" event during Decemember. For those that don't know, Old Sturbridge Village is a living history museum. It is similar to Colonial Williamsburg but on a much smaller scale. OSV is set up like a town in the 1830's. There is a sawmill, blacksmith shop, potter, school, and many other original buildings from that time period. I went there for the first time in ten years this June

http://www.southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2015/06/old-sturbridge-village.html

The walkways were lit by these lanterns
after dark. The light is produced by
real candles

I had read that the village is closed during normal daylight hours during December and open on weekends (Fri-Sun) evenings. I was intrigued about going to see the old timey traditions. OSV opens at 3 pm during this event and closes at 9. Cost is eighteen dollars whether you are a member or not.

We got to the village just after 3 pm. We wanted to experience it as long as we could. One thing I was hoping to do, was eat, or buy some "chestnuts roasted on an open fire". In the very first building we went into, sure enough, they were roasting chestnuts on an open fire and giving out samples. So needless to say my bucket list for the day was complete in the first five minutes.

There are events going on each half hour. You can either preview and print a copy of the events online. The link to each day's activities are provided in this link https://www.osv.org/event/christmas-by-candlelight. Or if you prefer, you can pick up a copy for that day when you pay your admission. Each half hour usually had two or three things going on. There were concerts of carolers in the meetinghouse, holiday poetry readings in the school house, a tree lighting, and a host of other things. Laurie and I would choose the thing we most wanted to do from the list. Some things like the tree lighting took five minutes, giving us time to walk the grounds. Others like a five piece brass band played for an hour (we stayed about 45 minutes).

In the town square, a fire was burning the whole six hours. There are benches surrounding the fire ring for people to sit around and warm up. We enjoyed the fire for a few minutes, but had no reason to warm up. It was almost sixty degrees when we pulled into the lot. When we left just before 9 pm, it was still warm enough my hands never got cold.



We made very good use of our time. We saw carolers singing traditional songs. Laurie and I really enjoyed a poetry reading in the schoolhouse. There was a magic show in the visitor center that was pretty impressive. We stopped and voted for the best gingerbread houses, that were truly works of art. We bought supper, I ate a chicken finger basket, but Laurie got a full turkey dinner for ten dollars. As I mentioned we listened to the brass band play holiday favorites.
Many of the shops were open. We watched the potter make four or five mugs. One building and some

These guys were awesome

really detailed model trains. Another building had a mini town set up. The "bakery" sold us a couple cookies, and they also sold hot cider. One of the more popular activities was taking a ride on the horse drawn wagon. It was full most of the night. It would take a loop around town. More often than not, patrons were singing Christmas carols on their trip.

 I suppose if the air would have been colder, the"romance" of Christmas time would have been stronger. Still, I was more than happy to walk around in khakis and a sweatshirt. If it would have been colder, I'm sure I would have gotten hot chocolate or cider instead of my soda.

All in all, we had a great time. It seemed as though time was moving much too fast. Before we knew it, it was 8:30 and we had seen all we could. Going to Christmas by Candlelight definitely put me in the Christmas spirit

This guy was sitting near us at the concert.
Shouldn't he be extremely busy this
time of year?

Gingerbread church

Carolers

Holiday decoration