GIFT
If you can possibly do so, plan to spend at least part of your Christmas holiday at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.
My wife and I did so many years ago as a wedding anniversary gift from one of our daughters and her family, and we have talked about and remembered so many memories from that short trip that it seems to have meant more to us hat other such settings. You will find, as we did, that there is something different about Christmas in Williamsburg.
There is a gentle quality in traditional observance of rites and rituals, and this subtle note is apparent in the decorations theme. Williamsburg stands alone in judicious use of nature to lend color. The plane is inundated with wreaths, garlands, kissing puffs, and long strands of evergreen foliage woven into seemingly endless strings of of yuletide lace/..The color bursts upon you ever so softly in the form of bight red apples... .tons of them, it seems – which form the overall essence of a decorations should be in complementing the structure holding it aloft. .When you see an ornament which is not apple-encrusted you may think of it as being out of place.
Lighting is a second feature so important to the Williamsburg Christmas. It, too, is soft and gentle. .The restored Governor's Palace, set amongst gaunt, black, leafless trees is a sturdy brick structure and glowing at every window there is a quiet candle;.in the upper level, festive lanterns. By daylight you will see another form of brightness which contrasts of light and dark areas darkness to the architectural niceties of the fantastic town. Much of this magic is brought about by a substance the builders did not have available in their time. We call it “paint”..
That protective, preserving beautification substance was not available to the founders such quality and discolors remember seeing Williamsburg before the restoration started. It was a rather drab and uninviting settlement.. War are seeing today the town the Colonial builders dreamed their village might someday become. We are witnessing the culmination of a dream.
Being in this colonial setting at Christmas time we are assured that much “is right with the world” which had seemed to have been askew.
A.L.M. March 17, 2004 [c402wds]
