This event has passed.

Christmastide in Virginia at Jamestown Settlement

Name: Christmastide in Virginia at Jamestown Settlement
Start: 2025-12-26T09:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-12-26T17:00:00-05:00
Location: Jamestown Settlement

« All Events

Event Series (See All)

December 26, 2025 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Christmastide in Virginia

📅Dec. 20 – 31 (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.

Holiday festivities take place at both museums, open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Christmas Day. Guests can explore immersive exhibition galleries and enjoy interpretive activities in outdoor settings that evoke life in early Virginia.
At Jamestown Settlement, visitors can compare English Christmas customs of the 1600s with how the season may have been observed during the challenging early years of America’s first permanent English colony. In 17th-century England, the Christmas season–lasting from December 25 through January 6–was a time of feasting and celebration.

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.