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writing and putting business affairs in order.
There was also time for sports. Several of Washington’s diary entries during the holiday period include references to fox hunting with friends and neighbors.
For the Mount Vernon servants, it was a time of relaxation, games and feasting. All but a skeleton domestic staff were given several days of vacation, as well as extra supplies of food or an extra ration of spirits.
These holiday “bonuses” were often specified in the contracts made with hired help, as in Washington’s April 23, 1787, agreement with Philip Bater, a gardener. The contract stipulated that Bater be given $4 with which to be drunk four days and nights at Christmas.
But according to Meadows, it is difficult to reconstruct details of Washington’s holiday celebrations because diary references are so few.
“That is why we keep Christmas at Mount Vernon quite simple, even today,” she says.
Decorations in the mansion consist of a garland of greens over the doorway in the central passage and a fruit pyramid on the table in the small dining room. In keeping with 18th century tradition, no decorating is done before Christmas Eve.
Perhaps the first reference to
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