Van Cortlandt museum re-creates spirit of Christmas past

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Simplicity was key when it came to Christmas decorations during the colonial period, and the Van Cortlandt House Museum evokes the spirit of the era in its annual holiday decorations this year.

The house, the oldest surviving building in the Bronx, has been putting up holiday decorations for more than 20 years, according to museum educator Michael Grillo. This year’s ornaments went up earlier this month and will remain on display until the second week of January. 

Mr. Grillo has also had a hand in making yearly decorations possible during the last 14 years he has spent at the museum. Dressed in a traditional colonial outfit he made himself, he led a Press journalist on a tour through each room of the house, narrating the museum’s history that he seems to know like the back of his hand. 

During the colonial period and afterward, Christmas was mostly a religious holiday, piously observed. Another holiday, which saw large-scale revelry, was Twelfth Night, falling on either Jan. 5 or 6.

Christmas trees, Mr. Grillo said, did not appear in homes until after the colonial period, as they started to arrive around 1843. So in keeping with bygone traditions, the house is decorated with bits of mixed pine garland floating through each room to bring a festive feel, and red apples serve as ornaments. 

Still, a mistletoe is draped in the entrance of the house. A tradition once required people to pluck berries off its branches after a kiss. 

Little is known about the life of the mansion’s former owners, the Van Cortlandts, during that period, according to Mr. Grillo, but the museum does its best to preserve what it has. Each room in the 18th-century home serves as a scene of a larger story about the Van Cortlandts that Mr. Grillo likes to talk about with visitors. 

In the dining room, people would celebrate the holiday with a formal dessert of gelatin. 

In rooms occupied by colonial-era children, wooden shoes with carrots and straw are laid out to prepare for Saint Nicholas’ visit in the same way that today’s children have milk and cookies out for Santa Claus. 

To keep the festivities buzzing with holiday events, the museum recently put on a Santa Claus Pajama Time event on Dec. 17. This turned out to be so popular that registration was at capacity and organizers could no longer accept more participants, but the museum’s events and decorations are not limited to the holidays. Throughout the year, the house commemorates important historical events that happened there, such as President George Washington’s visit when he used the home as the Revolutionary War’s headquarters.

According to Mr. Grillo, more than 6,600 young students visit the house each year, in addition to older adults, to learn about the Van Cortlandt legacy.

Because when it comes to colonial history in the Bronx and its impact on traditions, “it all comes together,” he said.  

 

To learn more about the Van Cortlandt House Museum, visit vchm.org

Van Cortlandt House Museum, Michael Grillo, colonial period, Tiffany Moustakas

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