For some local families, a cozy Christmas at home is only half the fun. For the other half, they head down to the annual Christmas at Fort Vancouver event. This year it’s set for Dec. 8.
“This holiday event continues to increase in popularity. Families often share with us that making Victorian crafts here has become a holiday tradition,” said Park Superintendent Tracy Fortmann.
That tradition is an authentic 1840s Christmas at the fort, as embodied by costumed, educated volunteers who make it real via vintage games, music, dancing, demonstrations and wassail.
Visit the blacksmith shop to rediscover the lost art of blacksmithing and the kitchen to see and sniff what’s on the 1840s Christmas menu.
If You Go
What: Christmas at Fort Vancouver.
When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 8.
Where: Fort Vancouver, 1001 E. Fifth St.
Schedule:
Hourly, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: saber demonstrations.
11 a.m. to 12 p.m., caroling by Madrigal Singers.
1 to 2 p.m, reading of excerpts from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” at the Fur Store.
1 to 3 p.m., music and dancing in the Counting House.
Cost: $7; free for 15 and younger.
Information: www.yourpassnow.com/parkpass
What: “A Celebration of Birds” and “Women’s Voices from the Oregon Trail” author Susan G. Butruille.
When: 10 a.m., birds; 1:30 p.m., Butruille. Dec. 8.
Where: Fort Vancouver Visitor Center & Bookstore, 1501 E. Evergreen Blvd., Vancouver.
Cost: Free.
Information: www.nps.gov/fova/index.htm
Traditional caroling from the Madrigal Singers starts at 11 a.m.
Visitors can try their hands at Victorian era craft activities like making wooden tops, wreaths and potpourri ornaments to take home.
A simple wooden top you make yourself sure is different than a Light It Up Electronic Dance Mat or a Paw Patrol Ultimate Rescue Fire Pups Gift Set. But there’s another key difference between contemporary Christmas and the 1840s version: not much by way of Christmas trees.
“This was before the era when Christmas trees became a popular item,” park ranger Bobby Gutierrez said during a previous fort Christmas. “That tradition really starts with the British royal family and the British populace, about a decade afterwards.”
But there was plenty of decoration, recreation and celebration, according to a history by former chief ranger and historian Greg Shine. The week between Christmas and New Year was a rare week of rest, he wrote, and liberally fueled by alcohol. (That’s not part of this re-enactment.)
“At the darkest period of the year,” Shine wrote, Christmas “ushered in a multi-day hiatus from the harsh labor and strict regimentation of the fur trade, illuminating life with leisure, recreation, feasting, and worship.”
Christmas at Fort Vancouver runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 8. Admission is $7 for adults (and free for children 15 and under); park officials encourage visitors to skip the line and avoid delays by trying a new service called Your Pass Now (www.yourpassnow.com/parkpass). Pay your admission fee on the website and bring a pre-printed pass, or download a QR code to your smart phone. You’ll be ushered into the event without having to dig for cash or wait for your credit card to be approved.
Tough old bird
More is happening on the same day, just up the hill from the fort at the Fort Vancouver Visitor Center.
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., it’s “A Celebration of Birds,” featuring special activities for children like building wooden bird feeders (limited quantities, supplied by The Home Depot). Artists from a group called Portland Paper Shapers will work with visitors on paper birds to decorate the tree in the lobby. Enjoy a hot cup of hot cider and shop for unique holiday gifts in the gift shop.
Then at 1:30 p.m., author Susan G. Butruille, the author of several “Women’s Voices” history books, will introduce the 25th anniversary edition of her celebrated “Women’s Voices from the Oregon Trail.”
Butruille will read from her book and talk about women who recuperated at Fort Vancouver after their harrowing 3,000-mile journey across the continent. She’ll also describe suffragette Abigail Scott Duniway’s vow to write a Women’s Declaration of Independence while she was making that journey, and the refusal of Vancouver’s own steely Esther Short to vacate the land that’s now a historic downtown park — despite the Hudson Bay Company’s best efforts to dislodge her.
