On the 12th Day of Christmas....

Sunday, December 14, 2008

I wanted to do this last year, but was busy the weekend it was offered. Old City Park in Dallas has a Candle Light Service each year. It's not what I thought it would be. They have the grounds completely covered in hurricane, glass protected candles. There has to be a thousand. You can see a few lit, but even in the ones not lit yet (we arrived before sunset), you can see where the paths will soon be lined with the lanterns.
I went to Heritage Park as a child. They have brought in homes, log cabins, old stores etc from around the area as it would have been in the 1900's and beyond. They have authentic furniture, and people with a love, and knowledge of history at each home to tell you a little bit about each one. It's a complete town. In the homes people were actually baking, sewing, etc, and wearing clothes from the time period. In this home they had decorated for Hanukah, and they were making potato treats, and apple sweets, and a gentleman was explaining the significance behind the candles, and games present in the home.

There is a church on sight, along with a doctor's office, lawyer's office, print shop, merchantile (with items for sale being made on sight), school house, lawyer's office, etc etc etc). They were also providing carriage rides in various forms of transportation around the park.

I went with Holly, her roommate from college, and my friend Maggie, and we grabbed a cold, bottled rootbeer from the saloon, and Holly got some kettle corn from a vendor making it fresh in the park.

They also had a ton of variations on what some of the houses would have been like, they had working farm houses with gardens, and animals stationed in the back.

It's Texas, so of course they had a traditional Native American teepee, and a cowboy camp.

They had potters, and blacksmith at work as well. You can custom order various objects from these guys, and it was neat to watch them work.

Caroler's strolled the grounds singing, and other singers, and dancers took the stage on "Main Street" throughout various scheduled times.

They always have set tables, and rooms that look like they are in use by a family, but my favorite part of this particular evening is seeing the decorations in the houses representing the ways people decorated for Christmas in year's past.

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