Vanderbilt Holiday Schedule Anoucement

Dear Members and Friends,

The holiday season at the Vanderbilt began on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with the annual Tree Lighting in the Mansion Courtyard. Santa and Mrs. Claus (what is her first name, anyway?) welcomed more than 300 visitors, many of them young children. The Northport Chorale sang carols and seasonal songs, and everyone enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate.

Our annual Holiday Dinner in the elegantly decorated Vanderbilt Mansion sold out very early this year, and guests enjoyed a time-machine trip to the 1930s that evening. Tours of the Mansion included live music on the 1926 Aeolian pipe organ, performed by Centerport’s Bill Caputi.

We’re grateful each December to local designers, decorators and garden clubs for decking the Mansion’s halls. Decorating this year were the Dix Hills, Centerport, Honey Hills, Nathan Hale and Three Village garden clubs; Harbor Homestead & Co. Design;Valerie Meskoures and Pat Ward, and the Cornell University Cooperative Extension master gardeners.

You can tour the Mansion and see the enchanting results of their work through January 6. Tickets for daytime tours are available at the door: $5 person, plus general admission — $7 for adults, $6 for seniors 62 and older and students with ID.

Special Twilight Tours of the Mansion are given each year on the three nights after Christmas — Friday-Sunday, December 26-28, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., and include hot chocolate and cookies. Admission at the door: $10 for adults, $9 for students and seniors (62 and older), and $5 for children 12 and under. This is the only time of the year the Vanderbilt family’s private living quarters can be seen at night.

We hope you’ll stop by, or bring holiday guests for a visit or a Planetarium show.

Best wishes from all of us at the Vanderbilt — for the holidays and the New Year.

Lance Reinheimer – Executive Director