Shall We Have Christmas?

By: Kajsa Sabatke, Manager of Public Programs

We're introducing a new program at the museum this year. Some of you may have come to our Holiday Lantern Tours in previous years. This year we've moved from the tours to focus even more on the experience of the winter holidays in the nineteenth century. If you're looking for a chance to visit The Farmers' Museum and experience a quieter and more historic atmosphere than Candlelight Evening, I hope that you'll come to the museum on Saturday, December 3, between 4-8pm. (And the week after that, please come and see the entire village aglow for Candlelight Evening.)

Our new program is called Shall We Have Christmas? During the nineteenth century, Christmas was not the major holiday that it is today. It was celebrated in similar, smaller-scale ways, though. Shall We Have Christmas won't be as large of an event as Candlelight Evening, but activities will be taking place in many of the buildings: holiday gift-making in the More House, singing and socializing in the tavern, wagon rides, holiday foods in the Lippitt House, greeting card printing in the printing office, remedies for winter ailments in the pharmacy, and decorations in the church. 

In addition to the staff who'll be talking about the holidays in each building, you'll be able to hear more about the holidays from quotes by people who wrote about their experience of the holidays in the mid-nineteenth century. Susan Fenimore Cooper, daughter of James Fenimore Cooper and also an author, shared many holiday observations in her book, Rural Hours:

The festival is very generally remembered now in this country, though more of a social than a religious holiday, by all those who are opposed to such observances on principle. In large towns it is almost universally kept. In the villages, however, but few shops are closed, and only one or two of the half dozen places of worship are opened for service. Still, everybody recollects that it is Christmas; presents are made in all families; the children go from house to house wishing Merry Christmas; and probably few who call themselves Christians allow the day to pass without giving a thought to the sacred event it commemorates, as they wish their friends a “Merry Christmas.”

Gwen Miner, our Supervisor of Domestic Arts, has also found quotes from historic diaries from the region that related to each of the buildings that will be open.

We hope to see you for at least one of our holiday events in December!

Candlelight Evening - the Niagara Falls of museum events

By: Erin Crissman, Curator As a native Western New Yorker, I have a special place in my heart for Niagara Falls. What does this have to do with Candlelight Evening at the Farmers' Museum? They both fit well into one of Immanuel Kant's definitions of the sublime. Candlelight and Niagara are simultaneously beautiful and horrifying. Here's why:

When I describe The Farmers' Museum's Candlelight Evening event to other museum curators, they're typically shocked. Why would anyone light 1000 candles inside historic buildings - MADE OF WOOD - then allow 3000 visitors inside? I used to share these fears and still approach the event's set-up with caution.

Each year, some of the things that come to mind as I prepare for Candlelight are -

"How about a little fire, Scarecrow?"

and one of my favorite campfire songs:

There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight (aka - Old Lady Leary)- a song about the great Chicago fire. Who doesn't enjoy shouting "Fire! Fire! Fire!" as an 8 year old?

Fortunately, we have a stupendous staff and lots of security and fire safety at The Farmers' Museum. Despite the quizzical looks from my other museum colleagues, I feel quite safe, and I know our buildings and objects are safe as well. Of course, I do take precautions, along with other staff, to ensure the safety of our buildings, objects and visitors during the three hour event. All staff here are trained annualy in fire safety, how to use fire extinguishers, and how to safely start and extinquish wood fires.

For this specific event, there are some additional precautions we take.

Patrick McGregor and I took down the curtains in the More House to keep them away from the flames.

Patrick places the votives on two-by-fours so that they're not too close to the wood muntins on our historic windows. No, the lumber isn't historically accurate, but neither are votive candles. Before a generous family donated 1200 glass votives to the event many years ago, the candles were placed in assorted baby food jars.All of the buildings are staffed with historic interpreters, volunteers or staff, like myself, to ensure that nothing goes wrong. This is the 30th annual Candlelight Evening, and although we've had a few fires in our historic buildings in that time, none of them were on the Sunday before Christmas!

I'm proud to be a part of the team that puts on this event every year. The crew takes the "terrifying" out of the day, so that we can all focus on the beautiful.

Candlelight Contest Continued!

We've received quite a bit of interest in our candle contest. Although we'd originally set a deadline for midnight tonight, you may now submit your guess through Thursday (December 17th). All you need to do is guess the number of candles staff and volunteers place around the museum for Candlelight Evening (on December 20th this year), and you can win a family membership! Send your guess to stayconnected@nysha.org Be sure to include "candles" in the subject line and provide your full mailing address in the body of the email so we can send you your prize!

Christmas Trees in the Nineteenth Century

By: Gwen Miner, Domestic Arts Supervisor The Christmas tree tradition dates back to 16th Germany. Most Americans in the first half of the 19th century would have found Christmas trees oddities. Eventually, Christmas trees gained popularity: 1850—“Godey’s Lady’s Book”, the most popular American women’s magazine published a print of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their family gathered around a tabletop Christmas tree. 1851—The first commercial Christmas tree vendor was a farmer who brought trees from the Catskills to New York City. 1856—President Franklin Pierce installs a Christmas tree in the White House. 1860—The December issue of “Godey’s Lady’s Book” publishes instructions on how to set up a Christmas Tree. Early Christmas trees were tabletop trees decorated with various edibles such as apples, gingerbread cut into shapes and home-crafted ornaments. Gifts were often hung on the tree.

Christmas Greenery

By: Gwen Miner, Domestic Arts Supervisor From ancient times, plants and trees that remained green all year had special meaning for people in winter. Since then people in many cultures have hung evergreen boughs over their windows and doors.

At The Farmers' Museum we have based our use of greenery for Christmas decoration in Central New York on accounts written in 19th century journals and diaries. One of the earliest accounts of the use of greenery that I have found is from the diary of Sarah Amelia Fairman of Butternuts, NY –1819-1821. On December 25, Sarah wrote, “Christmas has commenced in the eve we assembled to the courts of the Lord-the edifice was dressed with sprigs of green laurel and the running vine…” Sarah’s diary can be found in the Special Collections of the New York State Historical Association /The Farmers’ Museum Research Library. library.nysha.org

Susan Fenimore Cooper in her book “Rural Hours”, first published in 1850, wrote on December, Tuesday, 19th—

"We passed a cart standing in the woods, well loaded with Christmas Greens, for our parish church. Pine and hemlock are the branches commonly used among us for the purpose; the hemlock, with its flexible twigs, and the grayish reverse of the foliage, produces a very pretty effect...Neither the holly, the cedar, the arbor vitae, the cypress, or the laurel, grows in our immediate neighborhood, so that we are limited to the pine and hemlock. These two trees, however, when their branches are interwoven are very well adapted for Christmas wreaths."