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Experience a country holiday at The Rocks in Bethlehem, N.H. Harvest a tree, make an ornament, and listen to the bells jingle on a team of horses pulling a wagon along rows of Christmas trees. Owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the 1,400-acre estate is the group’s conservation and education center. In December, carolers sing around the warming glow of the marshmallow pit’s fire and local crafts are sold in the barn. Throughout the year, The Rocks holds nature programs for families. Stroll, ski, or snowshoe on self-guided trails leading to the candy-cane-like character Stumpy Village.
The Rocks, 4 Christmas Lane, Bethlehem, 603-444-6228, therocks.org.
In the Norman Rockwell world, Christmas is a big deal, and nowhere in the artist’s hometown of Stockbridge is it a bigger deal than at the Red Lion Inn. The Thanksgiving dishes are barely cleared before the decorating begins with setting up the gumdrop sculptures. Figurines of carolers cover the mantelpiece, and the inn keeps a log fire roaring throughout the day and evening, making the padded lobby chairs as coveted as summer’s front-porch rockers. Often with the aid of guests, staff members deck a bushy spruce in the front parlor with rocking horses, angels, and Santas. A pianist or harpist supplies the live music throughout the season — except when a troupe of carolers performs. Out front, the porch of the former stagecoach inn is lined with another half-dozen trees festooned with big-bulb colored lights. No wimpy white twinklers here. This is an old-fashioned Christmas, after all.
30 Main St., 413-298-5545,
(Text by Patricia Harris/ Globe Correspondent/ Photo by David Lyon for The Boston Globe )
Santa can avoid mall madness by filling that sleigh with imaginative gifts from nonprofit art centers’ holiday galleries. In Connecticut, wise men and women know where to find original work by hundreds of national and regional artists in November and December. In New Haven’s Audubon Arts District, the Creative Arts Workshop’s 39th annual Celebration of American Crafts brightens the two-level Hilles Gallery with blown glass, pottery, fish wall art, ornaments, furniture, jewelry, mirrors, and lots of kids’ items. Among eye-catching creations are Sideways & Askew’s clay-and-paper sculptural lighting and Hilary Gifford’s multi-fabric scarves.
About 14 miles east of New Haven, the Guilford Art Center moved its 29th annual event from its campus to a spacious building in town. At Artistry on the Green, jewelry covers a variety of styles and prices while a ‘‘wall of pottery’’ shows off functional and nonfunctional designs. The handsome Fairhaven Furniture does double duty as display spaces. There are ornaments, glass, men’s ties, wearables, toys, and paintings.
Billing the 32d Holiday Exhibition & Sale as the region’s largest, Brookfield Craft Center dazzles with glass, ornaments, pottery, jewelry, handwovens, and home accessories. We loved Adam Spector’s pottery, Jean Meinhardt’s porcelain bowls, and Kim Korringa’s playful polymer clay jewelry.
Holiday Exhibition & Sale through Dec. 31 at Brookfield Craft Center, Route 25, Brookfield Center, 203-775-4526, brookfieldcraftcenter.org.
Artistry on the Green through Dec. 31 at former Trailblazer Building, 102 Broad St., north side of Town Green, Guilford, 203-453-5947, handcraftcenter.org.
Celebration of American Crafts through Dec. 24 at Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St., New Haven, 203-562-4927, creativeartsworkshop.org.
Take one acre in the middle of Taunton, put up a 30-foot Christmas tree, build a house for kids to visit Santa, and string 42,408 lights on trees, archways, and assorted decorations. If that doesn’t fire up the holiday spirit, nothing will. Taunton has been known as ‘‘The Christmas City’’ since 1914 when the Taunton Green was first decorated as a way of attracting shoppers downtown, making the event one of the oldest public lightings in the state. It attracts tens of thousands every year, and is popular with families, as parents can walk or wheel little ones through the green’s glitz and glow serenaded by piped-in carols. The theme for 2007 s Home for the Holidays with the holiday tree sitting atop a 12-foot-tall box painted with Taunton landmarks and homes. And, of course, lined with lights that make this Christmas display so bright, you almost have to wear shades.
Taunton Green in located in the middle of downtown at the convergence of routes 140, 138 and 44, about 4 miles from Route 24 in Raynham.
When the weather turns cold and the sun begins to set at the unreasonable hour of 4 o’clock, a gal can be excused for getting a little crabby. To boost my spirits and get into a holiday frame of mind I love to head to Provincetown and see the Pilgrim Monument all lit up like a holiday tree. Well, they don’t call it a tree but it looks like one, or perhaps a glittering skirt for a very tall maiden. The official reason for stringing white bulbs from the apex to the bottom of this 252-foot tower is to celebrate the Pilgrims’ first landing in America at Provincetown on Nov. 21, 1620. Whatever. It’s cheerful and offbeat, like the rest of Provincetown, whose small, eclectic shops are gaily decorated for the holidays. The summer crowds are gone and it’s nice to bundle up and smell the salt air mixed with smoke from wood-burning stoves and shop in a place that isn’t a mall.
High Pole Hill Road, 508-487-1310, pilgrim-monument.org.
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