Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village

Last year, sometime in November, Stein called to see if we could get tickets to the Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village. The woman on the other end of the line laughed. "We've been sold out for months!" She explained. Wow, it really must be something special, we thought. This year, we were smart. We called sometime at the beginning of October to get tickets. We went this past Saturday with Doug and Susan and their son Ben. And yes, it was something special, for sure.

If you're not familiar with Greenfield Village, you can read about it here. Each time I go there, I am impressed with the foresight and generosity that Henry Ford had in acquiring and moving so many historic homes to one place. It's amazing to me to be able to go inside of places like Thomas Edison's grandparents' home, or Noah Webster's home, George Washington Carver's home, or the Firestone Farm. And in each of these homes (there are many others, too) there are people who are dressed in period costume, and are willing to tell you all you want to know about the place or the historic period.

For the Holiday Nights, all of these homes are open, but are decorated according to the historic period, complete with a display of all the holiday foods. On the streets, there are pedestrians walking and wishing Merry Christmas to everyone they encounter. On almost every street corner, there are groups of people singing Christmas carols. Model T Fords cruise the streets, as do horse-drawn carriages. And there are a lot of booths set up along the way with food for sale.

A blazing fire at one spot had a spit of beef where you could have some of it sliced onto a bun for a sandwich. A roaring fire at another spot had a huge kettle that held Butternut Squash soup. There were chestnuts roasting (on an open fire!), and hot cocoa to sip while we walked. The other thing that kept us warm, besides the hand and toe warmers we had in our shoes and mittens, were the huge bonfires set up at various spots around. Some had benches where you could sit around the fire, others were in decorated steel drums. These really helped in the 20 degree weather!

One of the best parts was the finale. We knew there were going to be fireworks, so we positioned ourselves in the place where we could watch. Before they started, all of the people in period costumes trudged through the snow in the field in the middle of the town holding lanterns on long poles. Women in long dresses and coats didn't seem to mind that their clothes were dragging in the snow. Once they were all in a line across one end of the field, they walked toward the crowd, where they eventually stood on the steps of the "Town Hall". There they started a Christmas sing along. The fireworks started shortly after. Stein and I decided to watch the rest of the fireworks as we walked back to the car. What a fun night! We'll definitely go back next year. Here are some pictures: