CHRISTMAS IN NEWPORT
Memories of One Christmas in Newport, Rhode Island.
A Modern Retelling in Nine Weekday Posts.
The Story is Mostly True.
By Kenneth Proudfoot
Chapter One (1/9)
Christmas Comes to Newport: The City-by-the-Sea
It was just three years ago, the winter of 2017, when the people of the city of Newport were busy decorating the streets, stores, mansions, bridges, and boats for the celebration of Christmas. The weather was cold and blustery. Snow was on the ground and more was anticipated. It would be a truly white Christmas. I was working as a tour guide at the Preservation Society of Newport County and was able to see up close all the preparations required for dressing up the society’s historic Gilded Age mansions with wreaths, lights, trees, and poinsettias.
The largest of them all -- The Breakers – was the first to get the Christmas treatment and it was stunning. It featured a towering poinsettia tree in the great hall, multiple lighted trees around the house, decorated fireplaces, thousands of sparkling lights, and a huge electric train display in the upper loggia overlooking the historic Cliff Walk and the Atlantic Ocean.
Two other mansions, Marble House and The Elms, would be next to welcome the Society’s decorators. Inside and out, the mansions at Christmas complement the city-by-the-sea’s public décor. Lights and decorations wrap around the electric poles and stretch up each historic street and down to the harbor where boats of every description are alive with colored bulbs and evergreen swag. When the first snow flies, there is no more beautiful place to be. As in past years, Newport’s Christmas at the mansions was going to be an experience to remember.
Tomorrow: Christmas at The Elms (2/9)
This and future chapters will be archived on the author’s website: www.kennethproudfoot.com
Memories of One Christmas in Newport, Rhode Island.
A Modern Retelling in Nine Weekday Posts.
The Story is Mostly True.
By Kenneth Proudfoot
Chapter One (1/9)
Christmas Comes to Newport: The City-by-the-Sea
It was just three years ago, the winter of 2017, when the people of the city of Newport were busy decorating the streets, stores, mansions, bridges, and boats for the celebration of Christmas. The weather was cold and blustery. Snow was on the ground and more was anticipated. It would be a truly white Christmas. I was working as a tour guide at the Preservation Society of Newport County and was able to see up close all the preparations required for dressing up the society’s historic Gilded Age mansions with wreaths, lights, trees, and poinsettias.
The largest of them all -- The Breakers – was the first to get the Christmas treatment and it was stunning. It featured a towering poinsettia tree in the great hall, multiple lighted trees around the house, decorated fireplaces, thousands of sparkling lights, and a huge electric train display in the upper loggia overlooking the historic Cliff Walk and the Atlantic Ocean.
Two other mansions, Marble House and The Elms, would be next to welcome the Society’s decorators. Inside and out, the mansions at Christmas complement the city-by-the-sea’s public décor. Lights and decorations wrap around the electric poles and stretch up each historic street and down to the harbor where boats of every description are alive with colored bulbs and evergreen swag. When the first snow flies, there is no more beautiful place to be. As in past years, Newport’s Christmas at the mansions was going to be an experience to remember.
Tomorrow: Christmas at The Elms (2/9)
This and future chapters will be archived on the author’s website: www.kennethproudfoot.com
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