HISTORIC TRIANGLE — Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown will be celebrating the holidays like it is 1699 with Christmastide in Virginia from Dec. 18-31.
Using special interpretive programs Jamestown Settlement will compare and contrast English Christmas customs of the day with how colonists would have celebrated the holiday during the austere surroundings of Jamestown in the 1600s.
Visitors will see how the Powhatan Indian showed generosity to Captain John Smith’s trading party in 1608 during a winter storm. Interpreters will also hold cooking demonstrations, explain how colonists preserved food and how they made hunting tools.
At the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, the living history areas will be bustling with reenactors giving accounts of Christmas and winter camp life for soldiers in the Continental Army. There will be demonstrations of how they cooked rations as well as flintlock musket demonstrations throughout the day.
Jamestown Settlement, located at 2110 Jamestown Rd. in Williamsburg, and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, located at 200 Water St. in the riverfront district, are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Both facilities will be closed Christmas and New Year’s days. Parking is free.
“Christmastide in Virginia” event activities are included with general admission and have been adapted to ensure the health and safety of everyone with protective protocols. Admission tickets can be purchased online on the eStore or in person, and a variety of tickets are available with Williamsburg area attractions.
For more information go to the Jamestown Settlement website.