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For those Christmas-loving traditionalists who can only groan when the Santa Clauses go up in the mall windows before the Halloween jack-o-lanterns come down, the little town of Washington, Virginia, offers the perfect way to start the season.
For visitors from the “other” Washington, to the east, a trip to the country for Washington’s third annual Colonial Christmas, Dec. 3 and 4, can be a shopping expedition and family holiday combined.
And for Rappahannock County residents, “the weekend of festivities offers a neat way for people to gather with their neighbors and usher in the holiday season,” said Nan Thomasson, one of the event’s organizers.
Visitors can watch prominent professional craftsmen practicing their crafts, sample wassail and sweets and other free refreshments at open houses throughout the town, have pictures taken with Saint Nicholas, help decorate the town’s Christmas tree and follow a Colonial guide on a candlelit tour of the village.
There’s a palpable sense of history appropriate to the first Washington of them all, a town laid out in 1749 by a 17-year-old surveyor named George Washington. His hand drew the municipal map, and the hand of another great American, Thomas Jefferson, influenced Washington’s architecture.
The old Presbyterian Church, which houses the Rappahannock County Library, Trinity Episcopal Church at the town’s center, and the handsome red brick courthouse and its dependencies, which are now county offices and the county jail, were designed by James Leake Powers, who was an understudy of Jefferson’s and helped construct his Monticello.
This rich historical tradition is heightened for the Colonial Christmas weekend. And with it comes a celebration of hospitality by Washington’s businesses and community organizations.
Every hour beginning at noon, costumed guides portraying characters from the 1700s will lead groups through the streets, going by candle and lantern light as night falls, and talking as they go of history, art, architecture and gossip of the village. Spokespersons in colonial dress will also be available at the Rappahannock Historical Society’s open house, ready to discuss family genealogies and histories as well as the history of Washington itself.
Washington’s Town Hall will be the scene of colonial merrymaking with costumed dancers performing the stately minuet and other traditional steps practiced in the 17th and 18th centuries.
At Heritage House Bed-and-Breakfast Inn, British troubadors and balladeers will entertain during the evening hours with dulcimers, autoharp and guitars. Next door at Country Heritage Antiques and Crafts, noted Northern Virginia quilting teacher Harriet Holbig from Pumpkin Seed Quilts will demonstrate her craft.
Gifted silver and gold smithy Christopher Goodine will show his skills at his little shop on Main Street where his “wave-length” creations will also be displayed.
Mary Johnson will be demonstrating chair caning and rushing at Mostly Yesteryear Antiques and Collectibles, and on Sunday afternoon, Daphne Kamely of Occidental Orientals will discuss and answer questions about techniques and patterns in rugs handwoven in years past by nomadic Europeans.
Patty Mullan will be at Mountainside Market to demonstrate the art of stained glass. This gourmet and natural foods shop on Gay St. will also be marking its first anniversary along with the Colonial Christmas celebration.
On Saturday at Middle Street, Piemont Virginia’s only non-profit cooperative art gallery, Joel Hoyer will demonstrate gold gilding amidst the “Art for Gifts” created by the gallery’s artists: paintings, tiles, clothing, canvas bags, pillows, baskets, photos, prints, ornaments
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