By Virginia Dean, Standard Correspondent
The official launching of the popular Wassail Weekend begins tonight with the screening of the award winning production of the National Theatre’s “War Horse” at the Town Hall Theatre at 7 p.m.
With its roots in 19th century England, whose villagers used to celebrate the dawning of Christmas by splashing trees with cider while firing guns or beating pots and pans, wassailing is alive and well in this tiny 21st-century New England town in which the impending festive season takes on an air of pageantry and tradition.
“I love Wassail Weekend,” said Beth Finlayson, director of the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce. “The town is filled with people enjoying themselves, whether they are on Pentangle’s house tour or having breakfast with Santa. I’m really excited that this year we will actually be serving the adult wassail-on-the-green as well as the children’s version!”
With streets decorated with white lights and Currier and Ives costumes and 19th century Victorian seasonal attire, spectators this year can relish in wagon and sleigh rides around Billings Farm and Museum, a Wassail parade, a meet-and-greet breakfast with Santa at the Little Theater, the reading of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” at the Norman Williams Public Library, holiday music through Pentangle, a Wassail feast hosted by the Woodstock Inn and Resort, a holiday craft fair, an Irish Christmas in America concert sponsored by Pentangle, the performance of the a capella group, the Ten, at the historic Congregational Church, and the lighting of the traditional Yule Log, Memory Tree and carol sing on the town’s Green immediately following the 32nd annual Wassail horse parade that starts at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Maxham Meadow Road.
“We’re thrilled about the weekend,” Sue Miller, High Horses program director. “We’re enjoying bringing it all together and watching the parade.”
There will be roughly 30 entries, several of which are groups, Miller said.
“So there’ll be quite a lot of horses and people this year,” Miller said. “We even have some rescue horses from the South Royalton 4H group.” The Green Mountain Horse Association of South Woodstock provides stables and radios for the riders. High Horses has been serving residents of the Upper Connecticut River Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont since 1993, according to Miller. It is one of three programs in Vermont whose standards meet the criteria to attain Premier Accreditation by Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International. Its mission is to improve the well being of people with special needs through a therapeutic equine experience.
Miller said the approximate 30 entrants in the annual Wassail event will be judged for the first time prior to the parade at the Maxham Meadow Road. Judges will be looking for best individual costume, best group, best horse drawn vehicle, most seasonally attired, most historic, best singing, and best junior entry.
Events on Friday will feature Christmas at Billings Farm from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the Woodstock Elementary School Sunrise Chorus on the steps of the Norman Williams Library at 4 p.m. where, 45-minutes later, a Winter Wonderland of Stories with Simon Brooks will occur; an open house at the Dana House Museum from 5-7 p.m.; and a Holiday Cabaret evening featuring the Great American Songbook (an ArtisTree and BarnArts performance) at ArtisTree’s performance space at 7:30 p.m.
A breakfast with Santa kicks off Saturday’s events at the Little Theater from 8-11 a.m. following by Christmas at Billings Farm from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; an open house at Farmhouse Pottery from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Wassail Café on the Green from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and the Wassail Craft Fair at the Masonic Lodge from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
One of the weekend’s most popular events and Pentangle’s biggest fundraiser of the year is its 15th annual holiday house tour on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. This year’s tour begins at the historic Woodstock Town Hall Theatre and culminates at the Woodstock History Center’s Dana House, built in 1807 and remaining in the Dana family’s hands until 1943 when it was sold to the Woodstock Historical Society. Today, the house is furnished to represent the home of a 19th century merchant. The Federalstyle house will have docents to provide historical facts and details.
Event participants can hop next door after the tour to the Prince & Pauper Restaurant, celebrating its 36th year and acting as the tour’s main sponsor.
At noon and 1 p.m. there will be a reading of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” by Ham Gillett.
A Wassail Youth Celebration Performance will be held on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre, featuring children ages 7 to 13 from Pentangle’s After School Performing Arts Camp, directed by Sharon Groblicki.
At the same time, at the Congregational Church, the Ten a capella group will be performing. Then at 4 p.m. attendants can enjoy the Lighting of the Luminaries on the Green, sponsored by the Woodstock Rotary Club.
At 5:30 p.m. there will be a Wassail Feast at the Woodstock Inn & Resort followed by a cello concert at the North Chapel Universalist Society at 7:30 p.m.
Also on Saturday at 8 p.m., at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre, a Wassail Weekend concert, Irish Christmas in America, will be held and will feature Irish ballads, instrumental songs and Irish dancing.
Christmas at Billings Farm can still be enjoyed on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as can the Wassail Craft Fair at the Masonic Lodge from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The weekend will conclude with the 33rd annual Messiah Sing at 4 p.m. at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church.
Sponsors of the weekend event include The Prince & the Pauper, Charl and Ching-Wen Taylor, Wild Apple Graphics, Woodstock Farmers Market, Woodstock Home and Hardware, Woodstock Insurance, Woodstock Historical Society, Birds of a Flower, Stitchdown Farm, Jasper and Prudence Floral and Events, Petals Floral Design, the Vermont Arts Council, Dead River Company, the Woodstock Inn & Resort, and the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce. Special thanks to Chippers for lighting the village.
This article first appeared in the December 8, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.