The Stephentown Historical Society will hold its holiday potluck dinner on Monday, December 7, at 6:30 pm at the Stephentown Heritage Center, Garfield Road (County Route 26) in Stephentown. Tom Kernan will give an after-dinner talk on the origins of America’s Christmas. [private]Officers and board members will be elected at the brief business meeting. For the dinner, bring a dish large enough to share: main course, side dish or dessert. Beverages and table service are provided. Instead of a gift exchange, a monetary collection will be taken to support the Stephentown Food Pantry. All meetings are free and open to the public. The building is handicapped accessible. For information, phone (518) 733-0010.
There will be a prize for the most over-the-top holiday sweater, so wear your most glittering, most outrageous sweater.
Kernan will show that Christmas got off to a dim start in the northeastern Colonies beginning with the Puritan ban of any sort of observances. December 25 remained just another ordinary working day as late as 1805-1810. Then, however, the New York Historical Society led efforts that in just fifteen years produced a major holiday with celebrations and “time-honored” traditions. Kernan will show images of Santa Claus from his earliest persona. You will learn of Christmas riots in old New York, of the influence of writer Washington Irving and his circle, the long traditions of Revels at Emma Willard School and the Boar’s Head Ceremony at Hoosac School, and what we owe to Philadelphia and the Delaware River Valley as well as the Dutch heritage of the Hudson Valley.
Kernan has a long interest in the history of Christmas and has an extensive collection of antique glass Christmas ornaments.[/private]