Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007
Each year, the holiday season is ushered into Yosemite National Park with a flourish of song and revelry in the spirit of holidays past.
The Bracebridge Dinner, an over 80-year-long tradition in Yosemite National Park, takes place in the Grand Dining Room of Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel, which is transformed each December into the 18th century manor of Squire Bracebridge … just as it was originally described in Washington Irving's "Old Christmas," one story in his collection entitled The Sketchbook (which also includes "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and "Rip van Winkle").
To achieve the spirit of "Old Christmas," long-time pageant producer Andrea Fulton uses talent from Stanford University's Theatre Department to play various parts in the cast, along with members of the Andrea Fulton Chorale and many extras (including some brave NPS and concession company staff members).
For eight evenings each winter, approximately 300 visitors are transported into the magical world where, according to Fulton, peace, love, joy, and laughter make up "… a Christmas that never was, but a Christmas that lives in everyone's hearts."
"A Christmas at Bracebridge Hall," has its roots with Yosemite Park and Curry Company President Donald Tresidder and his wife, Mary Curry, who were anxious to introduce guests to the splendor of Yosemite in winter. Since its inception with this forward-thinking couple in 1927 (the same year that the Ahwahnee Hotel was completed), the production of "A Christmas at Bracebridge Hall" has been adapted in only minor ways and its overarching themes of revelry, reverence, and whimsy have stayed reassuringly the same.
In 1929, Ansel Adams, who was then well on his way to becoming one of the world's finest photographers, developed the pageant as we know it today. In 1973, Ansel Adams retired from The Bracebridge Dinner, but his long-time collaborators Eugene and Anna-Marie Fulton stayed on. After Eugene Fulton's untimely death, their daughter, Andrea, joined her mother in the direction of The Bracebridge Dinner.
Today's Bracebridge Dinner continues to mix drama, laughter, music, and song with an excellent dinner-changed and updated each year by the Ahwahnee's chefs, but kept to the same traditional courses- and wine. Its popularity stems no doubt from the feelings of tradition, warmth, and festivity that it imparts in all its guests.
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