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Woodstock, Vt.: A Historic Festival in a Picturesque Town

 

Is there a better place to celebrate Christmas than Vermont, where the air has a fragrance of pine needles and the ground is (most likely) dusted with snow? For the past 25 years, Woodstock has hosted Wassail Weekend, a pre-Christmas festival that is rooted in 19th century Norse culture and traditions. While the city itself is a sight to see during the holiday season, Wassail Weekend brings a distinctive parade of more than 50 horses and riders adorned in holiday costumes and period dress, as well as wagon and sleigh rides, a wassail feast and tours of the city’s most notable historic buildings. (Wassail is a hot beverage, often something akin to cider, associated with Christmastime.) The city even makes it easy to complete (or start) your holiday shopping: throughout the festival, local shops stay open late, with enticing window displays that appear to be plucked from a movie scene. It’s everything you imagine Christmas to be, but so much more.

 

(WEB Note: We always  love a good plug for our little hamlet and our annual Wassailin’ Festivities…but when a writer refers to Woodstock as a “city” we lose a bit of  respect for the publication which clearly has written and/or edited the piece without visiting “Our Town”.  On another related note, we wish there was a way to bring back the bonfire BEFORE and DURING  the parade since it can get mighty chilly waiting for the various sections of the horses to move around the  Village Green.  We know, we know, we remember the horse or two that freaked out and ran amuk….causing injury to itself, but somehow, lighting the bonfire after the parade seems a bit, er, anticlimactic.  We also think fondly of  Kendalls past who were essential to organizing this event. Oh, one more thought….we’re hoping that a couple of well-known Woodstock Early Birds familiar with horses who happen to  contribute to  this blog might also be seen parading through town? What about it, guys?)