Issues → November/December 2008 → Travel →
Christmas in Vermont
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And then there's the village itself. Each of its more than a dozen inns has its own story. Central and Elm streets showcase some of Vermont's best artists and craftspeople and are home to venerable institutions such as F. H. Gillingham & Sons' general store, operated by the same family for 108 years; Woodstock Pharmacy, with its basement trove of educational toys; and The Prince and the Pauper restaurant, featuring chef Chris Balcer's genuinely Continental cuisine.
December 11-13, 2009, is the annual Woodstock Wassail Weekend, Vermont's most elaborate winter celebration, combining outdoor spectacle, indoor performances, and community events at which visitors feel genuinely welcome. "Wassail" is a spiced ale, a drink with which medieval homeowners rewarded the carolers who serenaded them. It's a great name for this entire yeasty weekend, best savored if you arrive Friday, the better to sample the children's events, concerts, feasts, and music in Woodstock's splendidly decorated public buildings and museums. Some of the town's most elegant private homes are also open for tours.
The big spectacle is Saturday afternoon's parade of more than 50 horses and many more costumed riders and passengers waving from wagons, surreys, and sulkies, all circling the green, where a top-hatted Father Christmas presides over the lighting of the Yule log and the Memory Tree, while costumed carolers lead the singing. Throughout the holiday season, the Rotary Club's Christmas star, with its 100 bulbs, beams down from Mount Tom on what remains, especially when the cold and snow settle in, a little Vermont town.
Reader Comments
Comment from Debra Harris on December 10, 2008
Oooh how this ole yankee wishes she could be in Woodstock for the WWW.
I fell in love with Woodstock over 20 years ago, to me that whole area truelly is "Heaven on Earth".
I enjoyed ths little write up & history on the area and the holiday goings on.
Have enjoyed many meals in Bentlys, have purchased many toys in the drug store basement, have had many a photo taken by the little brook, enjoyed ice cream cones in the summer time while strolling the streets and breathing in every little detail to relive over & over in my mind. The fall foliage is spectacular in Woodstock......every where you look is ablaze in God's colors........just breathtaking.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to "travel back in my minds eye"........espicailly as I sit here in Fl in the middle of Dec in 75 degree weather.
Blessings, Debra Harris
Comment from Deb Powers on December 12, 2008
The house which you featured in Christmas in Grafton, VT. is the home which has been in my family for literally centuries. The Grafton house was built by many "greats" before me and stands now hundreds years after it was built. It remains in the family now owned and maintained by my parents. What happens with the next generation is yet to be determined. But memories are as vivid today as when I was a child visiting Gram at the house. Thank you for such a wonderful tribute. Sincerely, deb powers
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