What Was Thomas Jefferson and His Familys Traditions at Christmas Time

For Thomas Jefferson, Christmas was "the mean solar day of greatest mirth and jollity." As was customary during the time, Jefferson celebrated the full 12 days of the Christmas season. The usual activities included traveling to the homes of friends and family, placing greenery around the firm, and hosting and attending parties. Jefferson gathered his circle of family unit, which he affectionately called "the fireside," around him during the holidays. This season describe inspiration from Monticello and make your festivities merry with classic accents and DIY workshops from The Store.

Festive Greenery

While Christmas trees were not popular until the 1840s, natural elements like decorative greenery, sprigs of holly in the windows, or holly and bay leaves in vases were likely adornments during Jefferson's time. A Harvest Glow Wreath, featuring Monticello's main export wheat, or a Dried Berry Wreath with Satin Bow, a classic combination of red and green, are certain to show off your seasonal spirit.

If you relish DIY, visit The Shop for ane of Monticello's Holiday Wreath Workshops. These e'er-popular workshops, in their 27th yr, produce a gratifying and tangible finish product: a beautiful holiday wreath. Janet Miller, Lou Hatch, and Maggie Stemann Thompson atomic number 82 participants through the process in these 3-60 minutes sessions. All materials (straw wreath forms, pins, wire, etc.) are provided, including a cornucopia of natural materials sourced from Monticello. Bring your ain hand pruners and visit Monticello.org for tickets to this annual upshot.

Archetype Candlelight

Nighttime wintry days and the remoteness of life in the countryside could lead to winter doldrums for Jefferson's family. Lighting was essential in keeping "many a dull wintertime in Albemarle" at bay. Jefferson encouraged his grandchildren to outline a class of winter reading and used the reflecting reading candelabra and alabaster lamp in his library for his own enquiry and entertainment. Candles lit evening celebrations, games, and music at Monticello. Brighten your dwelling house with vacation-inspired Ivory Glitter Tree Tapers or Red Metallic Lanterns, great for use inside or outdoors, from the Shop at Monticello.

Experience Monticello illuminated with a Holiday Evening Tour. These modest-group business firm tours, offered nightly through most of Dec, give visitors an intimate expect at how the holidays were historic in Jefferson'southward time and include a walk through of the Dome Room.

Seasonal Flavors

Holiday celebrations were more modest than those nosotros know today, but special food would have been the focal bespeak of the winter gatherings. Guests at Monticello could have enjoyed Country Ham and Hot Chocolate during the holiday season. Traditional savory and sugariness foods including Peppermint Chocolate Bark, Chocolate Covered Gourmet Apples, Country Cured Slab Bacon, Virginia Spoon Bread, and Monticello Sparkling Cider from The Shop are prefect treats for your wintertime festivities.

Many seasonal decorations evolved around the grand display of food on the table.  Whether or non you are a fan of traditional baked appurtenances in the "flavor of mince pies," as Jefferson termed it, using apples and other vacation scents in your décor can set a familiar festive tone for your gatherings. The Shop's Monticello Holiday Elegance Potpourri and Spicy Apple Botanical Wax Sachets are great choices for evoking the scents of the season.

Add some tasty DIY to your décor and embrace your inner architect during our My Monticello Gingerbread House Family Workshop. This icing intense program offers fun for the whole family unit. With hot chocolate and cookies fueling your creativity, yous'll work together to arts and crafts a delicious, hand-fabricated add-on to your habitation'due south holiday décor.

Holiday Keepsakes

During the 1809 Christmas, Jefferson wrote that his 8-yr-old grandson, Francis Epps was "at this moment running nigh with his cousins tearful out 'a merry Christmas' 'a Christmas gift, etc." Christmas so and now is a time to gather family around you. Typically gifts were given by parents to children, from masters to slaves but not from dependents to superiors.  The Shop offers gifts that are both classic and fun for kids of all ages like a Personalized Trunk, Child'south Pewter Cup, or Nine Men'southward Morris Travel Game. For both young and sometime, gifts inspired by Jefferson's Monticello make treasured keepsakes.

For handcrafted, historic, and unique gifts, visit the Shop at Monticello for Handmade for the Holidays. Run into artisans, sample holiday treats, enjoy craft demonstrations, and shop for gifts made in Virginia. Visit Monticello.org for more than information on this annual event or monticelloshop.org to shop these one-of-a-kind gifts online.

Merry Traditions

Christmas cards and hymns were popular though not necessarily the same ones and tunes of today. "Adestes Fideles,"" Joy to the World," "The Starting time Noel," "God Rest you Merry Gentlemen," and "The Holly and the Ivy" were some of the carols sung at Monticello. Jefferson was fond of music throughout his life and the parlor was the scene of many musical performances and much holiday revelry. A Monticello Musical Snow Globe or a handcrafted Thomas Jefferson Caroler are groovy ways to commemorate the sounds of the season.

Similar "dashing through the snow?" Start a new tradition and bring together the quaternary Almanac Monticello Holiday Classic 5K. Both festive and fun, this family-oriented 5K begins at the East Walk of Monticello and ends at the Thomas Jefferson Company Middle and Smith Teaching Middle. Kids 12 and under can enjoy the Deck the Halls Kids Nuance, a loop around the West Lawn within the shadows of Monticello. Pre-registration is suggested, but day-of registration is bachelor. Visit Monticello.org for more than information and holiday merriment.

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Source: http://blog.monticelloshop.org/?p=2394

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