Lantern Light

Whew! It's been a marathon of posting this last week, catching up on my much neglected blogging. This, I promise, is the last of the make-up posts before I launch into the new year.

For the last few years, the DFWCG has attended Candlelight as their December event. It takes place at Dallas Heritage Village, a collection of historic houses and buildings that have been brought together in a park that's been laid out like a small village.

This year, we had a change. Plano Heritage Farmstead, a similar museum just outside of Dallas, contacted us and asked if we would like to participate in their Lantern Light festival, a Victorian style Christmas event. We jumped at the chance to be involved, and Jen put together a wonderful demonstration of how to dress in Victorian fashions.

And it was a big hit! We had a packed room every time, and people had all sorts of great questions for us. Off to the side of the main room we had a "touch display", where people could look at historical undies and garments and even try some on for themselves.

 

We had several shows during the day, and once we had wrapped everything up we had a chance to enjoy the festival ourselves. They had carolers and a Victorian Santa, and even outdoor ice skating! It's been one of my silly costumer goals to ice skate in Victorian clothes, and I finally got to do it! It was a bit strange since it was about 70 degrees, but it was still super fun. They even gave us free hot chocolate afterward!

The original house had been built in 1890, so they had it all decked out for an 1890 Christmas. They had a small tree in the formal parlor, and the guide explained that there had been a rather nasty drought the year the house was built, and there were only small trees available at Christmas time. There was a musician playing the dulcimer in the music room, and the dining table had been decked out for a lavish dessert course. It was all so very charming and warm, and I wish I lived in that house.

Lantern Light was a really fun and beautiful event. The museum itself was wonderful to work with and very enthusiastic about our demonstrations. I can't wait to work with them again, and I definitely think that Lantern Light may become a yearly tradition!