Connecticut Travel

Decorated in turn-of-the-century Christmas style, the elegant Hotchkiss-Fyler House Museum, 192 Main Street in Torrington, will open its doors to holiday visitors beginning Saturday, December 11, 2010. The museum staff will offer guided tours of the house, built in 1900 and home to the Hotchkiss and Fyler families for more than half a century. Tours will be conducted Wednesday through Sunday and will start every half hour from 12 noon to 3:30 pm.

Christmas at the Hotchkiss-Fyler House features lavish holiday decorations typical of the early twentieth century. Garlands of greenery trim the staircase, doorways, and mantels and floral arrangements, wreaths, and poinsettias adorn the richly appointed interior. The dining room table is set for a Christmas dinner with the fine china, crystal, silverware, and linens that belonged to Gertrude Fyler Hotchkiss.

A number of Christmas trees will be on display throughout the house, including
a table-top tree in the sunroom decorated with late nineteenth and early twentieth century ornaments on loan from a private collector as well as a full-size tree in the reception room with hand-made Victorian-style ornaments and vintage trimmings from the Torrington Historical Society’s collection on its branches, antique toys gathered below.

The second floor of the house will feature items from the Society’s collection that reflect the life styles and fashions of the 1920s through the 1940s. In addition, a tree will be decorated with handmade ornaments based on early twentieth century Christmas advertisements from Torrington shops.

Admission is $7 for adults, free for members and children under 12. The house is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and on Christmas Day, December 25th. For more information, call (860) 482-8260.

They call this little town of Bethlehem “Christmas Town”, and with good reason. The annual Christmas Town Festival, scheduled for December 3 and 4, celebrates its 30th birthday this year as one of New England’s favorite celebrations. Thousands travel to this small village in the Litchfield Hills every year to mail holiday cards with a special Bethlehem greeting. The town’s historic Bellamy-Ferriday House opens to visitors for the occasion, and Bethlehem boasts a rare Christmas jewel, a museum-quality 18th century crèche on view in a vintage barn at the Abbey of Regina Laudis

30th Anniversary Celebration

This year’s special birthday celebration starts on Friday night at 6 p.m. when Santa turns on the lights on the towering 75-foot tree on the village green, with festive background music by the Region 14 choirs and bands, talented local groups. On Saturday, the gaily- decorated quaint buildings around the green will brim with over 70 art and craft exhibitors and there will be good food galore. Strolling carolers and musicians from the First Church Bell Choir will keep things lively, hayrides will be offered in front of First Church and Santa will be waiting at the firehouse to pose for pictures with young friends. Collectors can garner this year’s unique annual Christmas Town pewter ornament, sold only during the Festival.

The Bethlehem post office will open for special hours during the festival, Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The idea of mailing cards from Bethlehem dates to 1938, when a local Postmaster, the late Earl Johnson, realized that people were coming to town just to mail their cards. He designed a “cachet,” a special rubber stamp featuring a tree and lettering that said “From the Little Town of Bethlehem, Christmas greetings.” New cachets have been added each year since. More than 60 are now available and over 200,000 cards are now mailed each year from this small town post office.

Historic Home Tours

Bethlehem’s beautiful eighteenth century Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden also will open on Saturday, lavishly decorated for the holidays. Guides will be on hand to give tours and the family-friendly program will include games, prizes and surprises for children. Special entertainment is planned by The Sweetest Key, an all-female a cappella group, with a concert at noon and caroling from 1 to 2 pm. Refreshments and hot cider will be offered in the Visitor’s Center.

Magnificent Crèche

Another eighteenth century treasure is the crèche housed in a barn on the 400-acre property of the Abbey of Regina Laudis. The recently restored Neapolitan crèche is similar to the famous crèche in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and came from the same donor, Loretta Hines Howard. It is a remarkable creation containing 68 figures 14 to 16 inches high dressed in their original elaborate costumes. Along with the Holy Family, the figures vividly portray children, women bearing gifts, merchants, peddlers, angels, the Three Kings, and peasants with their farm animals. The Crèche is thought to have belonged to Victor Amadeus the Second, King of Sardinia, and is believed to have been presented to him on the occasion of his coronation in 1720. It is open free to visitors daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Christmas Town Festival will be held at the junction of Rte. 61 and Rte. 132 in Bethlehem on Friday, December 3rd from 5 to10 p.m., and Saturday. Dec. 4th, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free parking is available at the Bethlehem Fairgrounds on Route 61, where free shuttle buses will take visitors to and from the Festival. For additional information, see

The Parks and Recreation Dept of Redding Connecticut has arranged an exciting 175th Birthday Bash for Mark Twain, who died in Redding. With his passing, Redding, Connecticut acquired a unique distinction: Mark Twain’s final home. And while that distinction is of trivial interest, it is what transpired after his death that has kept Twain’s life and legacy alive and well in Redding.

Almost immediately after his arrival, Twain took interest in founding a public library for the residents of Redding. Why was this of interest to him? Perhaps it was in his genes…John Marshall Clemens, Twain’s father, is said to have been instrumental in founding the first Hannibal, Missouri Library.

To create Redding’s first public library, Twain donated books from his own collection. Next Twain went into fundraising mode, a role he greatly enjoyed. Male visitors to Stormfield were “taxed” $1 dollar, concerts were held, and his friends and associates were urged to contribute to the cause. He was very successful. Large contributions of books were sent to Redding by Collier’s Weekly, Harper & Brothers, and by Page & Company.

From 1908 to 1910, the library was a focal point for Twain. In fact one of his final acts was approving a check for the library building fund. Since that time, the Mark Twain Library has grown and it has evolved but what it has remained is a tribute to Mark Twain’s legacy. Visitors of the Mark Twain Library are surrounded by photos, paintings, quotations, artwork and sculptures… there is little doubt that you have entered the “Mark Twain” library. But, more importantly, the Mark Twain Library keeps Mark Twain alive.

On Tuesday November 30th, Twain’s 175th Birthday, the town of Redding is planning an exciting day that includes a Mark Twain impersonator who will visit points of interest throughout the town. The impersonator will give two performances at the Redding Community Center.

There will also be a showing of the 1939 Huck Finn movie starring Mickey Rooney, at 4 pm. at the Redding Community Center because it is the 125th anniversary of the first publication of this book. Nationally recognized Mark Twain impersonator, Alan Kitty, will be on hand before the film’s 4:30 showing to discuss one of his favorite characters. The film will be viewed in honor of the 125th Anniversary of the book’s first printing.

At 7:00 pm at the Redding Community Center there will be a world first preview of “Dangerous Intimacy” an exciting documentary produced by History Film Inc, a non-profit organization. The documentary, based on the book by Karen Lystra, tells the untold story of Mark Twain’s final years. Many of the scenes were filmed in Redding using local actors and locations. The director and producer of the film, Richard Altomonte, will give a brief talk about it’s creation and a question answer period after the film. Tickets are $5.00 each & can be purchased at the Redding Park & Recreation, call: 203-938-2551.

A display of The Mark Twain Centennial Collection” of limited edition prints, by Portrait Artist Susan B. Durkee, will be on sale, and a Mark Twain and Redding Historical Display will be on view at the Redding Community Center.

The proceeds of the event are to benefit http://www.historyofredding.com. historyofredding.com created by historian, Brent Colley.