Victorian Christmas 2023 - Decorating Party & Potluck Supper - NOW November 19th

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Hi All,

This year, someone special will be returning to Alna Center for Christmas! We're eagerly anticipating returning to an event that is more in keeping with our Victorian Christmas Trains of years past.

Saturday November 18th Sunday November 19th we'll be holding a work party at the Railway for the purposes of getting the railway decorated for Victorian Christmas. We'll gather beginning at Noon at Sheepscot to begin decorating process, ride the train up to Alna Center to decorate there and follow up with a potluck supper back at Sheepscot when we finish up.

Please join us if you can, we'd love your help!

Best,
Steve

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Happy about the return of an event in the spirit of Victorian Christmas Trains. If there is some snow, not too much of course, there will be wonderful pictures or videos. BTW, why have WW&F never set up a special event for Halloween like quite lot of tourist railways in the world ?

[Benjamin Richards]

Victorian Christmas is sort of the exception to how we usually run things, in that we handle the entire event internal to the museum. In general we've found it works better when we focus on being the railroad, and let other partners handle the actual events.

We run Pumpkin Picking Trains though most of October, and our partner SeaLyon Farms handles the pumpkins, hayride, food vendors, etc. But it is built around an autumn / harvest festival theme, rather than being haunted or spooky.

[James Patten]

We used to do Halloween trains, where we did the decorating and tear down.  At first they were very popular, but you're supposed to mix things up over time and we didn't do that very much, and the popularity dropped.  We also made the choice to use local high school kids in skits along the line, but they ended up sometimes being inappropriate.  At the end we were rather fed up with the effort to put it on for diminishing returns and stopped doing it.

[John Kokas]

I am so glad to see Victorian Christmas returning to the RR.  We have spent so much time and effort erecting that wonderful pavilion at Alna Center, it should be the destination for our Christmas Trains.  I hope that Santa, and "hopefully" vendors will participate and have a Christmas Market similar to what you find in Europe.  There is plenty of space and even some side "tents" would add to the event.  Only issue I see is how to either tarp or drape the sides/end of the pavilion to cut down on cold/wind/rain/snow for the people inside.  I do hope that the event is a whole weekend so more families can enjoy the event.  Prior weekend's should still be to Sea Lyon for Christmas Trees, etc. if Sea Lyon wishes to continue.

[Ed Lecuyer]

Hi John,

We hope the market at Alna Center will be as you describe it.  SeaLyon is not only an active participant in it, they are organizing the vendors, etc.

In essence, after two years of trying to make a "Christmas at the Farm" experience work, we've moved the farmstand and vendors to Alna Center so we can take advantage of the Pavilion, and streamline the whole event substantially. (Christmas tree sales are not being pursued by SeaLyon at this time.)

Key to this new approach will be the WW&F's presentation to the public, which has also suffered a hit over the last several years. Thus, the open invitation to help decorate on 11/18/2023.

We have started investigating some sort of sides for the Pavilion, but they will not be in place in time for this year's event.

[Mark Spremulli]

Do we have dates for Victorian Christmas?

[Ed Lecuyer]

December 2, 9, and 16, 2023.

[Mark Spremulli]

December 2, 9, and 16, 2023.

Thank you good sir. Will be there, weather depending, on the 9th

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Thank you James for your answer about Halloween trains. Of course if the efforts and the time put in on setting up such an event weren't rewarded anymore you were right to give up. In Pithiviers Halloween's Specials have started to run in 2019, and except for 2020, they have been all the rage since then with a booming ridership. I'm not really into Halloween, the world we live in is scary enough, but  the AMTP's volunteers love it and put in a lot of time to decorate the museum and the train and they are all in spooky dress for the occasion.

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Just to follow up on my original post with more specific times for November 19th they are as follows:
12 Noon - Meet at Sheepscot to decorate campus and trains.
2:30 PM - Train north to Alna Center
4:00 PM - Train back to Sheepscot
4:30 PM - Dinner at Sheepscot- Either Pizza or Lasagna, bring potluck salads and desserts.

Hope to see you there!
Steve

*As an additional note, we are collecting unwanted, but serviceable non-electric, non-tree ornament Christmas decorations. If you have something you'd like to contribute, please reach out to me prior to November 11th to arrange drop off at my house (so we can avoid storing and organizing them at Sheepscot)

Best,
Steve

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Hi all,

If you are planning on coming to help with decorating on the 19th know that you can by all means just show up.

However, signing up would help us know how much lasagna to make and also help us know how many/which dishes you might bring for the potluck.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084CAFAF2DA3F9CF8-45727708-november

Looking forward to seeing you there,
Steve

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Hi All,

In light of the nasty weather expected for decorating on Saturday, I've elected to move our decorating party to Sunday, November 19th at the same time.

Here is the most up to date schedule of the activities on the 19th:
12 Noon - Meet at Sheepscot to decorate campus and trains.
2:30 PM - Train north to Alna Center
4:00 PM - Train back to Sheepscot
4:30 PM - Dinner at Sheepscot- Lasagna, bring potluck salads and desserts.

You can still sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084CAFAF2DA3F9CF8-45727708-november

Thanks,
Steve