History.org: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's Official History and Citizenship Website

2011 Holiday Media Kit Images

Please contact Penna Rogers at (757) 220-7121 or progers@cwf.org for high resolution or alternate image formats.

• Colonial Williamsburg's holiday season begins Nov. 25, 2011, and runs through Jan. 1, 2012. Nothing quite compares to spending the Christmas season in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area. White lights sparkle in the Historic Area's exhibition buildings, such as the Governor's Palace, trades shops and private residences.
  
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• Colonial Williamsburg's Grand Illumination kicks off the holiday season in the Historic Area on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011. This signature event features musical entertainment on four stages including Colonial Williamsburg's Fifes and Drums, candlelit buildings and fireworks.
  
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• Lights glimmer in the windows of the Capitol as night falls. Colonial Williamsburg's guests enjoy concerts of 18th-century music during the holiday season in this historic building.
  
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• The Community Tree Lighting brings guests and residents together to hear the story of the first Christmas tree in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area. During a brief ceremony, participants light candles and sing Christmas carols before the tree lighting.
  
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• The evening program, "Christmastide At Home," takes guests on a journey through time to experience Christmases past. Costume interpreters talk about an 18thcentury holiday.
  
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• One of Williamsburg's original 18th-century buildings, the Courthouse of 1770, was the seat of local government and housed municipal and county courts until 1932. The building dominates Market Square, a green open space halfway between the Capitol and the College of William & Mary and is the site of some of Colonial Williamsburg's evening programs during the holiday season.
  
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• Colonial Williamsburg's guests don't always have to dream of a white Christmas as Mother Nature blankets the 18th-century capital of Virginia with snow in 2010.
  
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• During the holiday season, guests can join Colonial Williamsburg staff to carol in the Historic Area.
  
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• For more than 50 years, Colonial Williamsburg's guests have enjoyed touring Duke of Gloucester Street in the manner and fashion of the 18th century, as passengers on one of the Foundation's horse-drawn coaches.
  
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• Guests are invited to travel back in time to explore the homes and exhibition buildings of Virginia's 18th-century colonial capital.
  
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• Colonial Williamsburg's outdoor Christmas decorations are known for their use of natural materials available during the 18th century. These typically include pine and boxwood wreaths decorated with fresh pineapples, apples, oranges, pomegranates, nuts, pinecones, holly and other natural materials. During the Christmas Decorations Walking Tour, guests learn about 18th-century holiday traditions and the history of Colonial Williamsburg's renowned decorations as they tour the Historic Area throughout December.
  
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• Colonial Williamsburg's holiday decorations are firmly rooted in the traditions of Christmas and have emerged as a universal standard for the creative use of natural materials including a generous supply of pine, boxwood, Frasier fir, holly, magnolia leaves, yarrow, assorted fruits and berries.
  
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• The only limits to creating Colonial Williamsburg holiday decorations is the imagination. This grapevine wreath is adorned with shells, pinecones, strawflowers, baby's breath and dried okra pods.
  
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• Every year residents in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area enjoy holiday decorations contest. This resident created a wreath from greens, magnolia leaves, crab apples, cotton bolls, yarrow and pinecones. During the program, "Williamsburg Decorating Ideas for Your Home," Colonial Williamsburg landscape staff shares tricks of the trade as they demonstrate how to decorate traditional Williamsburg holiday decorations using fresh fruit, greens and other natural materials.
  
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• Guests to Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area enjoy the light and warmth of cressets during the holiday season. Cressets are iron baskets that are placed on iron poles. Pitch pine, or fat wood, is placed in them and burned to provide illumination during evening programs. This particular wood contains a high amount of resin that provides an especially hot, bright flame.
  
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• With the beating drums, trilling fifes and colorful uniforms, members of Colonial Williamsburg's Fifes and Drums are musical ambassadors for the restored 18th-century capital of colonial Virginia. The world-renowned military musicians have represented Colonial Williamsburg throughout the country including performances on NBC's Today Show, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Lexington and Concord 225th Celebration in Boston, the New-York Historical Society and in the "Longest Running Show on Broadway" - the 82nd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ®.
  
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• Special tours focusing on 18th- and 19th-century holiday traditions are offered at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. Art programs allow young guests and their families to explore the exhibitions and make a toy, ornament or decoration to take home.
  
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• Employees and their families and friends join together every year to add to the ever-expanding collection of homemade Christmas tree decorations. Many of the ornaments are reminiscent of objects in the museum's collection.
  
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• New this holiday season at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg is the tour based on the book, "The Art-Full Tree: Ornaments to Make Inspired by the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum." During a tour based on the book, guests discover how handmade, folk-art inspired ornaments are created, tour the museum with the author and explore the art that inspired the ornaments. Guests can create your own art-inspired ornament to take home.
  
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• The book, "The Art-Full Tree," features an object from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. On the opposite page are directions on how to make an ornament inspired by that object. Folk artist Jack Savitsky created the painting, "Miners' Train," based on his experience in the Carbon County, Pa., coal mines.
  
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• Bassett Hall was the Williamsburg home of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. As part of the holiday season, guests enjoy a variety of programs at Bassett Hall. New this year, families can explore architectural design elements in colonial houses during "Creaks and Peaks." Additional programs offered are workshops on knitting, cross stitched ornaments and Swedish heart ornaments.
  
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• WILLIAMSBURG Craft House offers a collection of ornaments for the Christmas tree including R. Charlton's Coffeehouse, Christiania Campbell's Tavern, Chowning's Tavern, King's Arms Tavern and Shields Tavern. Sparkling cider, peanuts and other specialty foods also can be found at the WILLIAMSBURG Craft House for gift giving.
  
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• Candy is not just good for eating, it is good for decorating as well. Candy canes, peppermint sticks and lollipops added to a flower brick with pine, holly or boxwood create a luscious centerpiece for a holiday table.
  
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• Store windows decorated for the holiday season hold treasures for every member of the family.
  
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• Merchants Square, the shopping and dining district adjacent to Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area, is home to more than 40 shops and restaurants. Most of the stores and all of the restaurants are locally owned and operated. Specialty boutiques offer products ranging from ladies', men's and children's apparel to fine jewelry, art, specialty foods and gifts.
  
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• Guests visit this open-air market filled with fresh and organic produce, home-baked specialties, flowers and greens, herbs, demonstrations, music and more. Photo credit: Taylor Henry.
  
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• It's not Christmas until guests hear the old holiday jingles and see the jolly old man with the red coat. Guests can enjoy milk and cookies with Santa at the College of William & Mary Bookstore. In addition, Father Christmas can be seen strolling through Merchants Square during the holiday season.
  
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• Providence Hall is a secluded colonial home overlooking a quiet pond located on the grounds near the Williamsburg Inn. It's the perfect location for an extended family to reserve for a memorable Christmas celebration or for a group of friends to book for a holiday gathering.
  
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• The master suite on the ground floor of Providence Hall includes a sitting area overlooking the garden, a wood-burning fireplace and a comfortable sitting area. The green brocade bed hangings were made by Colonial Williamsburg upholsterers. The sound of a grandfather clock chiming the hour adds to the ambiance of a stay in this elegantly furnished colonial home.
  
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• This spacious bedroom on the second floor of Providence Hall includes a large full bath and windows that overlook a pond in the front and a garden and golf course in the rear of the house. The furnishings, bed hangings, artwork and color scheme combine to make this room an elegant hideaway for anyone who desires accommodations that are private, gracious and reflect the elegance of our colonial past.
  
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• Nothing quite compares to the elegance of the Williamsburg Inn decked with greenery and twinkling trees for the Christmas season.
  
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• The festive lobby of the Williamsburg Inn includes the grand tree decorated with hand-made ornaments from the Regency period, two wood-burning fireplaces and the hustle and bustle of guests enjoying the ambiance of the Inn.
  
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• The stately tree in the lobby of the Williamsburg Inn is trimmed with handmade ornaments that reflect the Inn's Regency décor. At the top, the striking Prince of Wales crown of needlework and three ostrich plumes commemorates one of the great art patrons of that period.
  
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• The designs for the handmade ornaments on the tree in the Inn are credited to Susan Winther, former director of design for Colonial Williamsburg, who had the idea of re-creating the themes, designs and colors (gold, cranberry, cream and sage green) of the Inn's Regency period. The gold tassels reflect the tassels on the window treatments, while the oval ring and dried flowers mirror the floral ring in the center of the lobby rug. Stars and lyres are found on each end table on either side of the center sofa, and urns and cupids were popular design elements of the period.
  
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• The parlor of the Ewing House is festive with its red toile fabric and comfortable furnishings. A small tree is placed in every Colonial House-Historic Lodging during the season, and the wood-burning fireplaces are lighted on request.
  
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• Visions of sugarplums surely dance in guests' dreams when they sleep in the second floor bedchamber of the Ewing House. Furnishings include an American walnut dining table, circa 1800-1820, and Kittinger wing chairs inspired by circa 1730-1740 originals. The canopy bedsteads reproduced by Kittinger for Colonial Williamsburg include the ball and claw feet, fluted posts and arched headboards in mahogany of the originals made in New England circa 1760-1775. The bed coverings are reproduction William and Mary coverlets made for Colonial Williamsburg and available in the WILLIAMSBURG at Home store in Merchants Square.
  
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• The Williamsburg Lodge opened in 1939 to provide comfortable accommodations for travelers to the historic town and is one of the first Colonial Williamsburg hotels constructed under the guidance of John D. Rockefeller Jr., the founder and first benefactor of the town's restoration.
  
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• Executive Chef Rhys Lewis leads the culinary team at the Lodge, where the dinner menu is an ode to the bounty of Virginia with starters of local river oysters, she crab soup or Mobjack shrimp cocktail followed by salads from Virginia gardens. A selection of just the right wines from Virginia and across the country accompanies any meal. Chef Rhys is the instructor for "Wine, Wit and Wisdom," a popular wine tasting and pairing held during the holidays at the Williamsburg Lodge.
  
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• A roaring wood fire in the Lobby Lounge is the perfect setting for a game of checkers, a cocktail, reading or relaxing in the comfortable furnishings reminiscent of a gracious family home.
  
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• From Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, lighted Christmas trees, fresh greenery, antique sleighs, wooden toys and fragrant flowers conjure up memories of Christmases past and create a setting to make memories anew in the Williamsburg Lodge.
  
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• On Christmas Eve in the Chowning's Tavern Garden, hot chocolate, warm cider and holiday treats are served before the lighting of the community Christmas tree.
  
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• A dinner at King's Arms Tavern, where 18th-century gentry dined, is a special way to celebrate the holidays.
  
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• Enjoying a candlelit dinner at Christiana Campbell's Tavern during the Christmas season makes it clear why this was one of George Washington's favorite dining establishments.
  
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• The Spa of Colonial Williamsburg is located just steps from the Williamsburg Lodge, Williamsburg Inn and Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, and is reached by way of a brick walkway. Guests of the Inn, Lodge, Colonial Houses and Providence Hall and Guesthouses have access to the indoor pool and fitness quarter. Spa services may be booked by hotel guests or day visitors.
  
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