BRADENTON, Fla. — The Manatee Village Historical Park is preparing for a special event called “An Old Florida Christmas.”
What You Need To Know
- The Manatee Village Historical Park is preparing for an event called “An Old Florida Christmas”
- It is geared toward learning more about how the holidays have been celebrated in Florida across time
- The event begins Saturday, and runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Park historical interpreter and curator Matt Woodside said that oranges, of course, played a part in old Florida Yuletide celebrations — as a present and as pomanders, a decoration made from oranges with a pattern of cloves embedded in them.
“Citrus grove owners at Christmastime would make these little ornamentations to give away to their friends and family,” Woodside said.
He’s preparing the Bradenton spot for their “An Old Florida Christmas” event to be held on Saturday.
The park offers a restored general store, chapel, schoolhouse and a local home once owned by the Stephens family of Manatee County.
“The Stephens were a farming family that build this house in 1912,” said Woodside. “About 40 miles east of where we are today.”
The house was preserved and transported to the Manatee Village as an example of Florida’s frontier life. Woodside said 10 children grew up in the home, and celebrated a different kind of Christmas season.
“Back in the 1910s period, the pre-World War I period, there just wasn’t the availability of Christmas decorations,” he said. “Often times it was more of a community affair where they would have what was called a Christmas Frolic. And it was a dance party later that afternoon, where the community we get together and celebrate with dancing and fiddle playing, and that sort of thing.”
Locals can enjoy an Old Florida Christmas Saturday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Admission to the park is free.