Christmastide in Virginia at Jamestown Settlement
December 19 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Christmastide in Virginia
📅December 19-31, 2026 (except Dec. 25)
🕢9 AM – 5 PM
📍Jamestown Settlement
“Wassail! Wassail! All over the town!” ’Tis the season for centuries-old holiday cheer and merriment.
Families and friends are invited to celebrate Christmastide in Virginia with festive traditions from the 17th and 18th centuries. Through lively interpretive programs, fancy cooking, caroling, and musical entertainment, visitors can step into the holidays of early Virginia.
Compare and contrast English Christmas customs of the period with how the season may have been observed in the difficult early years of America’s first permanent English colony through special interpretive programs. In 17th-century England, the holiday season – extending from December 25 to January 6 – was a time of merriment and feasting.
Outdoors, Paspahegh Town, the ships’ pier with replicas of the 1607 ships, and the palisaded fort offer a closer look at daily life in the early colony. Historical interpreters share seasonal stories, from the English colonists’ first Christmas at sea in December 1606 to the Virginia Indian hospitality shown to Captain John Smith’s trading party during a winter storm in 1608.
At James Fort, guests can see wattle-and-daub buildings decorated with greenery and watch demonstrations of fancy cooking. In Paspahegh Town, interpreters showcase typical winter activities such as food preservation and hunting techniques, bringing the season to life for visitors of all ages.
For more information, see here.
