Starting with the annual month-long Nantucket Noel on November 27 and running through Nantucket New Years, and including the dazzling Christmas Stroll Weekend December 4-6, Nantucket will be the place to be this holiday season.
Starting with Nantucket Noel, holiday festivities begin the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 27 with the Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and Community Caroling. Locals and visitors assemble at the top of Main Street at dusk to thrill the lighting of more than 100 holiday trees followed by.
The following weekend is the long-awaited Christmas Stroll Weekend with a dizzying list of events including Nantucket Historical Association’s Festival of Wreaths and Festival of Trees, Scavenger Hunt, Christmas Market, Storefront and Tree Decorating Contests, Town Crier Ringing in Christmas Stroll and arrival of Santa Claus, the Magical Talking Tree on Main Street, Community Sing-Along and live entertainment!
Nantucket Historical Association’s annual Festival of Wreaths will feature eighty beautifully crafted wreaths on display in the Whaling Museum’s McCausland Gallery. Each wreath was created by a Nantucket community member, local merchant, nonprofit organization, artist, artisan or school children. This free event runs Wednesday thru Saturday November 25 and 27–28 (closed Thanksgiving November 26) from 10am to 5pm. All wreaths can be won through a competitive bidding process and proceeds support NHA’s many programs.
NHA’s much beloved 22nd Annual Festival of Trees will be held December 4 – 31 from 10am to 5pm daily (hours on Friday, December 4 will be 10am–8pm and Saturday, December 12 from 5pm-8pm) at the Whaling Museum.
NANTUCKET CHAMBER’S NANTUCKET NOEL HOLIDAY RAFFLE
Anyone can enter the Nantucket Chamber’s Nantucket Noel Holiday Raffle featuring a fabulous prize of a one-week Nantucket stay in a traditional cottage and includes round trip transportation, dining gift certificates to three restaurants, two bikes for one week, Nantucket RTA one-week bus pass for two and a Stop & Shop gift card. Only 500 tickets are available and they are on sale now. Stop at the Chamber office at 0 Main Street or call 508-228-1700 to purchase. The raffle drawing will be held on January 2, 2016.
NANTUCKET NEW YEARS
Nantucket New Years will run from Wednesday, December 30, 2015 through Saturday, January 2, 2016. Activities and events will include the Festival of Trees, a Nantucket Walkabout, Birding Field Trip, Noon Years Eve Arts & Crafts Workshop, Skating Celebration, Night to Remember Ball, New Year’s Eve Bon Voyage Dinner and more!
IN the HEART of the SEA
And as if the foregoing was not enough, the much-anticipated December 11 launch of Ron Howard’s blockbuster feature film In the Heart of the Sea, based upon the novel written by Nantucket resident Nathaniel Philbrick, will invoke Nantucket’s glory days as “whaling capital of the world” in the mid-19th century. The film can be viewed in the very “heart of the sea” on Nantucket island!
The novel and feature film both evoke the Essex, an 88-foot whaleship which called Nantucket home. Departing its island home in August 1819 for an anticipated 2-1/2-year voyage, the Essex met its untimely end on November 20, 1820 when the ship sank 2,000 nautical miles west of South America as a direct result of a whale attack by an unusually large (85-foot) sperm whale. What followed the wreck, the desolation of the surviving sailors and their tribulations, were practically beyond words. The three survivors were rescued when almost within sight of the South American coast by Nantucket whaleship Dauphin, on February 23, 95 days after Essex sank. Both novel and film recount what is purported to be the true story behind Herman Melville’s classic 1851 novel Moby Dick.
Philbrick observed a truism of survival tales, which In the Heart of the Sea is definitely one, “A survival tale peels away the niceties and comforts of civilization. Suddenly, all the technology and education in the world means nothing. I think all of us wonder while reading a survival tale, ‘What would I have done in this situation? Would I have made it?’ ”
CARLISLE HOUSE IN the HEART of the SEA GETAWAY PACKAGE December 10-13, 2015 only
Carlisle House, an 18th-century island B&B, is offering an In the Heart of the Sea getaway package. Just imagine watching the movie while visiting the mid-19th century “whaling capital of the world” and the very place from which the actual Essex whaleship departed for its ill-fated voyage in 1819.
Carlisle House’s In the Heart of the Sea package will be offered December 10-13, 2015
and will help celebrate the 250th anniversary of this former whaling captain’s house which was once owned by Love Parker, sister of Essex Captain Pollard. Pollard’s story is told in the major motion picture In the Heart of the Sea by director Ron Howard which opens that weekend! For $399 the getaway package includes: two-night stay in a spacious queen room, continental-plus breakfast daily, two tickets to the film at Nantucket’s Dreamland Theatre and admission for two at the Nantucket Whaling Museum.
For additional information about Nantucket and holiday events, visit Nantucket Chamber or telephone 508-228-1700.
Meanwhile, on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard:
CAPE COD
Come celebrate Christmas on Cape Cod this December. Every town and village puts their special stamp on holiday-inspired events throughout the month, including festive strolls, theater performances, parades, harbor lightings and Santa’s arrival by boat. Kids will love the Train to Christmas Town aboard Cape Cod Central Railroad and Gardens Aglowat Heritage Museums & Gardens. Visit http://christmasoncapecod.com/ for holiday events, packages, “shop-portunities” and to find out how you could win hundreds of dollars in gift cards through the “Santa’s Helper” social media promotion! Lots of holiday happenings are planned in Hyannis (see http://web.hyannis.com/events?month=12&Year=2015). Find more information on Cape Cod.
MARTHA’S VINEYARD
A favorite Island tradition for 34 years, Christmas in Edgartown – happening December 10-13 – celebrates the holidays and provides visitors the chance to experience the charm of Edgartown in the winter! Weekend highlights include the Christmas parade, an arts & craft fair, holiday concerts, photos with Santa, the annual lighting of the lighthouse at the Harbor View Hotel, retail promotions, and holiday-themed events benefiting Island Charities. For more information visithttp://www.mvy.com/
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