Save the Date!

The Music Hall + Strawbery Banke Museum Present

Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth December 2011

Now in its seventh year

Strolls, Shows & Stayovers

 

“One of the ‘Top Ten Things

Not to Miss in New England’” – Boston Globe

 

Free Vintage Christmas Trolley returns

Great shopping/restaurants; hotel packages available

 

Plan the perfect holiday visit now!

Visit www.vintagechristmasnh.org

Portsmouth one of “America’s Prettiest Towns”- Forbes Traveler

“New England’s most appealing city” – Miami Herald

Portsmouth, New Hampshire… It may be Summer in New England, but it’s time to Save the Date and make plans now for the perfect holiday visit during Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth. Presented by cultural anchors The Music Hall and Strawbery Banke Museum, it’s a month of Strolls, Shows and Stayovers in the historic seaport of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Listed as “one of the Top 100 Events in North America” (ABA) and  “one of the Top Ten Things not to miss in New England” (Boston Globe), Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth has people returning year after year to the small city that Travel Guide of America calls “the crowning glory of the New Hampshire Seacoast.” Now in its seventh year, Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth will once again offer the irresistible Candlelight Stroll that Strawbery Banke Museum has created for 32 years, the live holiday shows, opera broadcasts and films in The Music Hall’s landmark Historic Theater and the new intimate Music Hall Loft on Congress Street, and the welcoming stays in the elegant and delightful holiday downtown. Get ready to cuddle up with a free trolley ride through red-bricked Market Square, stroll through the snowflakes to the many eclectic shops, step back in time through living history at the festively decorated Strawbery Banke Museum, sample Portsmouth’s famous culinary specialties, or enjoy a first-class show at The Music Hall.

Back by popular demand – the free Vintage Christmas Trolley shuttles patrons around the historic seaport each Saturday and Sunday afternoon and evening for the first three weekends in December.

Joining the two nonprofits this year will be Presenting Sponsors Churchill’s Garden Center; the City of Portsmouth; LunaChics; Upper Crust; Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce; and Seacoast Media Group; Lead Sponsors: Sheraton Harborside and

Weather Partner 107.1 WERZ. Great Bay Academy of Dance, which produces An 1836 Portsmouth Nutcracker, will be participating as a Community Partner. A handy calendar/map will be available to visitors to make it easy to get around town.

Vintage Christmas Presented by

The Music Hall: www.themusichall.org

Strawbery Banke Museum: www.strawberybanke.org

 

Presenting Sponsors

Churchill’s Garden Center: www.churchillsgardens.com

City of Portsmouth: www.cityofportsmouth.com

LunaChics: www.shoplunachics.com

The Upper Crust Pizzeria: www.theuppercrustpizzeria.com

Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce www.portsmouthchamber.org

Seacoast Media Group www.seacoastonline.com

 

Lead Sponsors

Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel: www.sheratonportsmouth.com

107.1 WERZ – Weather Partner www.werz.com

 

Community Partner

Great Bay Academy of Dance: www.gbadance.com

 

Vintage Christmas Updates

Website: www.vintagechristmasnh.org

Twitter:  @vintage_xmas

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/vintagexmas

Weather:  Tune in to 107.1 WERZ and 100.3 WHEB for your Vintage Christmas Weather Update on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

 

According to Patricia Lynch, executive director of The Music Hall, “Portsmouth is the perfect town for Vintage Christmas since it’s a charming mix of the contemporary and historical. It’s all about celebrating the winter, the warmth, the light, and our collective memories of holidays past.”

 

Back by popular demand: Holiday packages

Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth hotel packages are available through the Vintage Christmas website. Packages include accommodations, tickets to Strawbery Banke Museum Candlelight Stroll and tickets to The Music Hall live performances on each of the three Vintage Christmas weekends in December. Visitors can take advantage of the convenience and value of having all their Vintage Christmas visit details in one place, “wrapped up with a bow”! 

Back by popular demand: City provides free Vintage Christmas Trolley

The free city trolley is wildly successful. Patrons use it to not only ferry themselves from parking lots to the center of town, between The Music Hall and Strawbery Banke Museum, but also to give themselves a brief overview of what Portsmouth has to offer. The trolley’s scheduled route – to run the first three weekends of December on Saturday and  Sunday from 1:30-10:30pm – is a quick 15-minute loop with several stops to jump on/off for shopping, and to get a bite to eat and drink. Day visitors will be able to park at various lots around town and jump on the trolley, while overnight visitors in downtown hotels will be able to walk to convenient trolley stops.

Strawbery Banke Museum visitors tour Portsmouth’s oldest neighborhood

At Strawbery Banke Museum, visitors step over the threshold of time to experience holiday traditions spanning three centuries of New England life at its most popular signature event of the year – Candlelight Stroll. A cherished Seacoast-area tradition, the Candlelight Stroll takes its name from the hundreds of candle luminaria lighting the paths of Portsmouth’s oldest neighborhood.  The historic houses of Strawbery Banke are dressed in period-appropriate holiday finery of live greens and dried flowers collected from the grounds and assembled by imaginative staff. Costumed role players and live musical entertainment recall the traditions of times past. An engaging blend of sights, sounds, and smells, Candlelight Stroll provides a welcome return to the roots of America’s most treasured holiday traditions. Candlelight Stroll is offered on the first three weekends in December: 3/4; 10/11; and 17/18 from 5-9pm on Saturdays and 4-8pm on Sundays.

About the Music Hall’s two theaters

Historic Theater: Step over the threshold of this landmark Victorian theater – the oldest in New Hampshire – and into the Beaux Arts Founders Lobby featuring superlative patron amenities. Upstairs, the elegant 900-seat auditorium – now restored to its 1878 splendor – has welcomed artists ranging from Mark Twain to Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Patrons greet friends and neighbors in this community great room, a gathering place for conversation on a site dating back to the days of Frederick Douglass. The original hardwood floor and horseshoe balcony ensure superior acoustics for stage and screen events.  Full concessions are available in both lobbies. Just around the corner from the Historic Theater, the Music Hall Loft features the same fabulous programming, but in a smaller more intimate (125-seat) setting, with gourmet food and cocktails that can be taken right to each seat.

Vintage Christmas 2011 Schedule

 

FIRST WEEKEND

 

Saturday, December 3        1:30-10:30pm Vintage Christmas Trolley 15 min. route

5-9pm Candlelight Stroll at Strawbery Banke

8pm Leahy Family Christmas, Historic Theater

5pm Holiday Tree Lighting, Market Square

6pm Illuminated Holiday Parade Sunday, December 4           1:30-10:30pm Vintage Christmas Trolley 15 min. route

10am, 3pm Met@The Music Hall (Loft): Rodelinda

2pm Leahy Family Christmas, Historic Theater

4-8pm Candlelight Stroll at Strawbery Banke

 

SECOND WEEKEND     

Thu/Fri Dec 8/9                  7:30/8pm Merry Funny N.E. Christmas Historic Theater

Saturday, December 10      1:30-10:30pm Vintage Christmas Trolley 15 min. route

3 + 8pm A Christmas Celtic Sojourn

5-9pm Candlelight Stroll at Strawbery Banke

 

Sunday, December 11          1pm Met@The Music Hall: Faust

1:30-10:30pm Vintage Christmas Trolley 15 min. route

4-8pm Candlelight Stroll at Strawbery Banke

 

THIRD WEEKEND

Saturday, December 17       2pm, 7pm Great Bay Academy of Dance: Nutcracker

1:30-10:30pm Vintage Christmas Trolley 15 min. route

5-9pm Candlelight Stroll at Strawbery Banke

 

Sunday, December 18         11:30am, 2pm Great Bay Academy of Dance: Nutcracker

1:30-10:30pm Vintage Christmas Trolley 15 min. route

4-8pm Candlelight Stroll at Strawbery Banke

 

Don’t miss these Community Events, during the week and in the days before Christmas!

December 16-18                   Great Bay Academy of Dance; Nutcracker

Tuesday, December 21        7:30pm The Music Hall Presents Messiah Sing!

Thursday, December 31     First Night Portsmouth

 

RESERVATIONS

 

Shows

Tickets for all Music Hall holiday shows can be purchased at The Music Hall box office at the Historic Theater (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth), on the phone at 603.436.2400, or online at www.themusichall.org

 

Strolls

Ticket prices for the Strawbery Banke Candlelight Stroll are $20 for adults, $10 for children, and $50 for families (2 adults and their children ages 17 and under). Tickets can be purchased online at www.strawberybanke.org or by phone at 603.433.1107. Tickets may be used any night of the Stroll.

 

Stayovers – Packages available at: Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth hotel packages include accommodations, tickets to Strawbery Banke Candlelight Stroll and tickets to The Music Hall live shows on each of the three Vintage Christmas December weekends. Take advantage of the convenience and value of having all your Vintage Christmas visit details in one place, “wrapped up with a bow”! Check the new Vintage Christmas website for information about special hotel packages or visit the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel online at www.sheratonportsmouth.com

 

 

About Strawbery Banke Museum

Connect with the Past! See how people in the Puddle Dock neighborhood of Portsmouth lived over nearly 400 years of New England history. Through restored furnished houses, exhibits, historic landscapes and gardens, and costumed role players, Strawbery Banke interprets the living history of generations who settled in Portsmouth, NH from the late 17th century to the mid 20th century on its 10-acre campus.  Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH is open 10am-5pm daily May through October and for Candlelight Stroll and historic house holiday tours in December. Call 603-433-1100 for more information or visit: www.strawberybanke.org

 

 

About The Music Hall

The Music Hall is a performing arts powerhouse featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus – one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner. Acclaimed signature series bring top authors and artists to both stages, while HD broadcasts and independent film fill both screens. Two radio shows broadcast on NH Public Radio originate here. An anchor cultural organization in this historic working seaport, The Music Hall is a 501c3 nonprofit managed by a professional staff with the assistance of a volunteer board.   Welcoming more than 100,00o patrons (including 20,000 children) each year from the tri-state area and beyond, The Music Hall is the region’s center for the performing arts, literature and education…easy to get to, impossible to forget.

 

“the beating cultural heart of New Hampshire’s seacoast” – Boston Globe

First three Saturdays/Sundays December 2010

Free trolley; great shopping/restaurants; hotel packages

Portsmouth one of “America’s Prettiest Towns”- Forbes Traveler

Portsmouth, New Hampshire… Once again The Music Hall and Strawbery Banke Museum have begun preparing for Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth “one of the Top Ten Things not to miss in New England” (Boston Globe). Returning for its sixth year in the city that Travel Guide of America calls “the crowning glory of the New Hampshire Seacoast,” Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth will continue to present the attractions that have people marking their calendars year after year: The irresistible Candlelight Stroll that Strawbery Banke Museum has hosted for 31 years (this year’s theme: “Once Upon a Winter’s Eve”), the live holiday shows, HD broadcasts and films in The Music Hall’s unforgettable Victorian theater, and the unparalleled stays in the elegant and delightful holiday downtown. Get ready to cuddle up with a trolley ride through red-bricked Market Square, stroll through the snowflakes to the many eclectic shops, step back in time at the festively decorated Strawbery Banke living history museum, sample Portsmouth’s famous culinary specialties, or enjoy a first-class show at The Music Hall.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by J. Dennis Robinson from SeacoastNH.com

HISTORY MATTERS

Let’s face it, the Puritans hated Christmas. Our vintage holiday comes largely from our Victorian ancestors, the first comspicious comsumers, who cobbled together the trimmings and traditions we know today. They commercialized the busy holiday, but they also knew its meaning – slow down and be thankful. Don’t confuse our cozy Christmas customs with those of our pious Puritan progenitors. The early Puritan settlers hated Christmas and everything it stood for. They did their best to wipe the celebration off the colonial American calendar. The dominant founders of New England would have preferred roasting Catholics over an open fire, rather than chestnuts. They were opposed to Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and to Christian sects besides their own, especially Quakers. They were not a tolerant bunch and their laws came to reflect their beliefs. READ THE WHOLE STORY Read the rest of this entry »

Strawbery Banke Museum & The Music Hall Present:

This new classic holiday tradition in New Hampshire’s oldest waterfront town is a collaboration of The Music Hall and Strawbery Banke Museum is heading into its sixth year of “Strolls, Shows, and Stayovers.” That’s the Candlelight Stroll that Strawbery Banke has hosted for 31 years, the live holiday shows, opera broadcasts and films in The Music Hall’s restored theater, and the stayovers at charming hotels and inns.

Keep your eyes here, for more information.