Christmas at Williamsburg
Each year between Thanksgiving and the New Year, visitors flock to the streets of Williamsburg to see the holiday decorations. Forget the electric lights, the glitter of plastic, all the decorations are natural and handmade. Here is my sampling of decorations set to music.
Colonial Williamsburg: Yesterday and Today
I remember visiting Colonial Williamsburg as a young kid with my parents. Then I just thought it was an old fashioned town and didn't realize the historic importance of that land or the incredible amount of work that went into recreating the streets of Colonial Williamsburg.
At a young age I was exposed to our country's dramatic history, but didn't realize at the time the true significance of that exposure. Years, many years later, I came to appreciate the birth pangs that our country experienced before becoming the bastion of freedom. Colonial Williamsburg has successfully recreated many elements of that struggle for freedom. Not everyone was in favor of severing ties with the Crown. Not everyone wanted to end slavery. It was a cauldron of conflict during mid 18th Century Colonial life. .
George and Martha Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, just some of the names that barely seem to animate our country's history books today, come alive here. These streets, the shops, the buildings, the homes, the church are where these historic figures walked, talked and lived. The same streets, buildings where you can stop and spend a few moments appreciating a most historic time in our nation: the days just before and after we became us.
Colonial Williamsburg is a faithful recreation of the days leading up to the American Revolutionary War.
That Revolutionary Experience has been captured and restored in Colonial Williamsburg. Tourists from around the world return to see for themselves where history was made, where the seeds of a free America were openly discussed, where ideas were defended. Colonial Williamsburg represents a time when the land and its people were stirring-- revolution hung in the air like smoke from chimneys drifts across the field on a cool October morning. It was here that the idea of freedom had germinated.
The public buildings in this community have painstakingly been restored to that time of revolution. Today, the authentic characters living here are highly skilled artisans that at first glance could have been transported more than 250 years to today. Witness life much as it might have appeared to our Founding Fathers, their families and friends.
The town includes scores of original buildings and hundreds of homes, shops, and public buildings enclosed in over 300 acres, with most of the structures having been reconstructed on their original foundations. Scattered throughout the town, visitors will see animals, tradesmen and gardens that add layers of authenticity to the recreated town.
Colonial Activities
Every day from 3 to 5 p.m., weather permitting, the east end of the Historic Area is transformed into a street theater. Here, the events of the Revolution play out in the stories of everyday life told by the residents of 18th-century Williamsburg.
On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, “The Collapse of Royal Government,” chronicles the years from 1765 to 1776 during which Great Britain’s King George III and Parliament attempt to tighten controls over their unruly colonies in North America but only succeed in driving them into rebellion.
“Citizens at War” on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, details the trials and tribulations that Virginians faced from July 1776 to October 1781 as the War for Independence changes their lives and the world they have always known.
“Building a Nation” on Mondays explores the lives of residents and prominent visitors to Williamsburg and their contributions to the founding of the new nation.
Williamsburg Historic Area
The Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg stretches over 300 acres and includes 88 original 18th-century buildings that have been meticulously restored. Hundreds of houses, shops and public outbuildings are reconstructed on their original foundations.
The Historic Area is also where you'll see historic figures that till now, have only been so many words on a page. At Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area, you'll see and hear the founding fathers, the craftsmen and artisans come to life through 21st Century interpreters that bring their stories alive, much as they would have been like more than 200 years ago.
Some buildings in the village are open to the public. Others are private residences and administrative offices. When you see a flag outside a building's entrance, that indicates the site is open to the public.
