Stratford Hall Christmastide
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Stratford Hall 483 Great House Rd., Stratford, Virginia 22558
This year make spending December 10 at Stratford Hall part of your holiday plans. Celebrate the season in another century. From 4:30 – 8:30 p.m., enjoy and ponder the worlds of the privileged and worlds of the enslaved through history, song, dance, and stories.
Enter the Visitor Center and listen to the contemporary seasonal music of Kathy Mapp, while enjoying enjoy some light refreshments. Cross the lighted bridge, stop by the bonfire and make a “Christmastide wish” by tossing a holly sprig into the fire. Follow the candlelit path to the Great House. Stop by the Carpenters Shop and listen to the music of Ampersand, a musical duo, performing eighteenth and nineteenth-century “popular’ music. Proceed into the Great House, where, on the lower floor, one of Stratford Hall’s gifted interpreters, Rita Wagstaff, will tell the story of the enslaved at Christmas through her historical interpretations, gifted storytelling and song. Moving upstairs, watch the courtly dance and music of the Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society. The Stratford Hall interpretive staff will be available to answer questions about the rooms, furniture and art works. Moving outside to the Old Kitchen, visitors will want to stop by to visit with another of our interpretive staff, Martha Newman, as she prepares a sumptuous and savory Christmastide meal on the open hearth. Leaving the Kitchen, stop by the reconstructed slave cabins before returning to the warmth of the bonfire and the refreshments in the Visitor Center.
$12 for adults, $7 for children, free for Friends of Stratford members. Tickets will be on sale at the Gate House until 8:00pm. For questions, please contact Jon Bachman at 804-493-1972 or jbachman@stratfordhall.org.
The special Christmas buffet dinner in the Stratford Hall Dining Room is by reservation. For reservations and pricing, call 804-493-1967 or email reservations@stratfordhall.org. The cost of the Christmastide house tour is included in the price of the dinner.