Sashay Magazine / November 2010 / Christmas in Nantucket

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Christmas in Nantucket

Cold sea air blends with the scent of pine from live Christmas trees lining the streets; carolers and bell ringers in period dress perform in the square. In Nantucket, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Every year in December, this supremely New England island off the coast of Massachusetts celebrates what has become an island tradition – Christmas Stroll weekend.

The stroll began in 1973 when local merchants, in an effort to boost the island’s economy, kept their shops open late on the first Friday in December, inviting Nantucketers to do their holiday shopping on-island instead of traveling to the mainland. Along with their crafts, books, clothes and wares, shopkeepers offered samplings of wine, hot chocolate, tea, mulled cider, fruitcake, and holiday cookies.

Fast forward 37 years and that one night of holiday shopping and mingling has exploded into a weekend full of events that draws thousands of people. On Friday night get in the holiday spirit by joining throngs of people (with flashlights and maps in hand) for the Holiday House Tour, featuring six of the island’s historic houses, some of them more than 300 years old, beautifully decorated for the season with wreaths and evergreens. The tour ends at the Whaling Museum with the Festival of Trees. One hundred Christmas trees are decorated in island themes ranging from lightship baskets to buoys to the Nantucket firefighters’ tree, dripping with fire department badges from around the world.

On Saturday at the stoke of noon, the town crier in colonial dress walks down Main Street ringing his bell to herald the official beginning of the stroll. At 12:30 p.m. Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive the "island way "– by sea – on a historic Coast Guard vessel surrounded by a bevy of Coast Guard men and women decked out in red life jackets ,and red and white stocking hats. After a horse drawn carriage ride down Main Street, Santa sets up shop at the Pacific National Bank so children (and children at heart) can have their pictures taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Learn about the ghoulish side of Nantucket town on an evening walking tour to several of the island’s haunted places.

You can also join the Nantucket Historical Association’s guided walking tours, where you will hear about Nantucket’s years as a whaling port that supplied the world with sperm oil. And, how over 100 years ago, Centre Street was called Petticoat Row because all the businesses lining the street were owned and operated by women. It was Nantucket women who kept everything going at home while their men were away on sea voyages lasting three years.

There is an abundance of activities to choose from that will fill your entire day or weekend: concerts, theatrical performances, ice skating, wine and beer tastings, book signings, open houses, and, of course, the shopping. Nantucket has beautiful and unique shops and galleries offering art, antiques, books, leather goods, jewelry, clothes, and decorative things for your home.

For more information, call the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce at 1-508-228-1700 or visit www.nantucketchamber.org 
 

Image Courtesy of Michael Bruckner Photography, Asheville, NC www.mbruckner.smugmug.org