You won't see any Christmas trees in Colonial Williamsburg, but the place isn't any less festive.
The colonial city and first capitol of Virginia is decked out every holiday for the Grand Illumination, which is one of my all-time favorite holiday activities.
The
Grand Illumination started in 1934 with candles illuminating a few of the exhibit buildings and was known as the White Lighting.
The event has grown and Fifes and Drums and fireworks were added in 1959. This year, the event in the restored 18th-century town included massive firework displays in three locations in the historic town.
As the Fife and Drums finished up and the spotlights went dark, white lights in a house near the Capitol where we were watching flipped on, noting the event's simple beginnings.
I remember dragging a college roommate to the Illumination one year and it was then I fell in love with it. As kids, my parents had taken us on several tours of the colonial town and we never could get into it. But by the time I was in college, I'd started falling in love with Colonial Williamsburg and also my hometown, Yorktown. The colonial part anyway.
That was probably 2003 or 2004 when I went the first time and I don't remember it being anywhere near as crowded as it was this year. I'd heard marketing spots on the radio since I moved home to Virginia, enticing people to spend a weekend in the colonial town for all the festivities from an earlier era. I was glad to see the crowds flocking to the town for some history and fireworks, because I know the foundation needs to funds and support to keep operating and maintaing the well preserved colonial town. But that was met with a frustration that so many people were in my town and blocking my view of an event I'd loved for years.
It was also quite cold and parking was a mess and my mom was really not enjoying the cold, but once the fireworks started it was completely worth it. This year's Grand Illumination was one of the best fireworks displays I've ever seen and watching it light up the sky over Virginia's original Capitol was really quite cool.
That was Sunday, Dec. 5. The day before, I'd also dragged my parents out to Williamsburg for the Green Spring Garden Club's 51st annual Christmas Homes Tour.
The tour takes you into houses that typically aren't open to the public and they've been decorated in what would have been traditional styles in the town's colonial days.
It was pretty cold that day too and we got a late start so then we had to pick up the pace once we made it to town. That was not helped by the enormous lines in front of some of the houses. So we went out of order to help beat some of the crowd.
First, we went into Masonic Lodge No. 6. The current structure was built in the early 1900s replacing the original 1774 building that served as the Mason's meeting hall since the 1750s. We didn't find this building as interesting as the others, but I did learn about Masonic voting from one of the Masons there that day. It's also where the term 'black balled' comes from. They have a wooden box with a tray built into it. The tray had a handle, which is hollow, and drops to the bottom of the box. Originally, the tray held white and black balls. You put white into the tube for a yay vote, black for nay. Each member would have a black and white ball and with one hand would drop the color of their vote into the tube, the other back into the tray. But, as members aged some couldn't see the colors anymore so they made the black ball a cube, but the term 'black balled' stuck.
Next, we headed to the Tayloe House, which sold for six hundred pounds in 1759. The house was once home to John Tayloe, one of the wealthiest men in colonial Virginia. The colonel also owned Mt. Airy in Richmond County.
Next, the Grissell Hay Lodge House, which was built in the early 1700s. During the Revolution, the house was occupied by Rev. James Madison, then president of the College of William and Mary (also in Williamsburg) after Cornwallis and his troops took possession of the president's house on campus.
The William and Mary president's house was next and it had a long line and was packed on the inside. It took us forever to get through there since we waited in line and then once inside some of the staff gave mini-presentations on the artwork, the furniture, the architecture and more. It was interesting, but harder to take in the house when you're crammed in to a colonial house (even the big ones tend to have smaller hallways and rooms) and people keep talking at you. All the same it was an interesting Georgian style house built in the 1730s. It's the oldest official residence for a college president in the U.S.
Last on our tour was my favorite, the Lightfoot House. It's where the president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation lives currently with his wife, Nancy. Also a Georgian house, it was built around 1730 and was built as a double tenement but was brought into its present form in the mid-18th century. It's also one of the few homes in Colonial Williamsburg to have a balcony.
I think what I liked most about the house though was that Nancy was at the door welcoming people in and telling them about the house. Her husband, president of the foundation that runs the historic town, was at the William and Mary football game. It was nice to see them care so much about the house and the town and the people coming to see it. Plus, she was funny and friendly. She told my mom about squirrels eating the fruit from the wreaths on the door the night before.
Everything in Colonial Williamsburg is decorated as it would have been in the colonial days, meaning all the Christmas decorations are natural and appropriate for the time period. Many of the
wreaths on doors were made with fruit and other live greens. No one had Christmas trees since O Tannenbaum didn't show up in Williamsburg until the 1840s when a European political refugee brought the tradition with
him.
Christmas and the holiday season is my favorite time of year and my love of the colonial towns where I grew up continues to grow, so the combination of the two is a perfect holiday treat for me. If you've never been, I recommend it. The colonial towns are great any time of year, but I think they're especially lovely during the holidays. Many of the activities are free, and when they're not, the funds are supporting the foundation and the upkeep of these colonial gems.
I didn't it to Yorktown's lighted boat parade this year, but I hear that event has also become quite popular. I went to the first one during college and certainly plan to go again next Christmas. You should too.
Happy Holidays y'all.
