Preparing for the Holidays!

Today we are decorating the village houses to get ready for Yuletide. During Yuletide, visitors take special guided tours around the Village and observe different Christmas scenes in each building. We are still looking for singers for our chorus for this. If you are interested, please contact Megan at mbarrell@gcv.org.

Along with Preparing for the Holidays, you can observe more ways that our 19th century counterparts were getting ready for the festivities on Saturday the 26th. You can try making some Christmas Crafts for your tree and home, taste some flavors of the season, and even see how a hog gets from the barnyard to the feast table! 

In other news, Genesee Country Village and Museum hosted it's very first Civil War Immersion event. An Immersion event is one in which the participants are in First-Person the whole time. That is, they assume a character for the weekend and do not break it for the whole 48 hour period. Nothing is scripted, so the participants have to be prepared to react to whatever may happen. In this case, the event was set in Western Virginia in 1861. A local bridge had been burned and the area occupied by the Federal Army. The Confederates are hoping to retake the bridge area. We did not expect to see soliders in town, but we did, many times! It was quite exciting!

Here are the civilian participants in front of Hosmer's Inn.

We hope to host such an event again as it went off very well and all had a great time!

End of the Season!

Sad to say it, the end of our regular season is already upon us. Today and tomorrow are the last two full days of regular admission. Not to worry though, it is only the kick-off of our special themed programs like the Spirits of the Past Tours, Trick-or-Treating, Yuletide Tours, and Preparing for the Holidays events. You can find more information about those programs here.

Today, visitors can taste Quince Jam at the Livingston-Backus house. Jam was often being put up for winter use out of the fall bounty. 

Observe the last cheese of the season being made at the Jones Farm. In about 3 months it will be ready to enjoy by a warm January fireside as the snowflakes fall! 

The Word of the Day is palaver. To palaver is to talk profusely. 

We villagers have been having a Word of the Day contest where entrants must write a story in 300 words or less that utilizes as many of the past Words of the Day as they can. Points are awarded for correct use of the words as well as humorous content. Stay tuned for the winner's story!