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Explore 18th-century holiday entertainments at Mount Vernon. Try your hand at popular card games of the period, learn about the music of the enslaved, and hear from Washington's closest friends about how the season was celebrated at his home.

Buy Tickets Become a Member for Free Admission

Offered

Cost

Included with admission
Adults (Ages 12+): $28
Youth (Ages 6-11): $15
Children (Ages 0-5): Free

Free for Mount Vernon members

Located At

Historic Area

“By the man who brot. A Camel from Alexa. For a show. . . .0.18.0” — George Washington, 1787

Activities

Music of the African Diaspora

10 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. & 1:15 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Performances at 11:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., & 2:00 p.m.

12-Acre Field

Discover the music of Mount Vernon's enslaved population with special guests SlamOne. Learn about how the enslaved incorporated music with African roots into their holiday celebrations.

Making Music

9:30 a.m. - 11:45 p.m. & 1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

12-Acre Field

Explore the role music played within the enslaved community at Mount Vernon. Create an instrument inspired by those brought from Africa or recreated by enslaved people in the American colonies. 

Game Time

10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. & 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Greenhouse

Learn to play the card game “Loo” and try your hand at games like "Shut the Box" and "Nine Men’s Morris."

Story Time

11 a.m. & 1 p.m.

Interpretive Center

Celebrate the holiday season with the story of the Continental Army’s Superintendent of Bakers who was determined to keep Washington’s troops fed. 

Dining with the Washingtons (November Only)

1 p.m. (Ticket Required)

Explore how the people who lived at Mount Vernon in the 18th century dined on a tour that takes you to the gardens, salt house, smokehouse, slave quarters, greenhouse, and the Mansion’s kitchen. 

Discover how food was grown, preserved, prepared, and served at Mount Vernon. You'll leave this specialty tour knowing the Washingtons’ favorite recipes, what hired and enslaved servants at Mount Vernon ate, and why Martha Washington wasn’t a fan of Vulcan, Washington’s French hound.  

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Good Tidings We Bring

2 p.m.

Interpretive Center

Join our Character Interpreters for an exploration of holiday celebrations at Mount Vernon past and present. 

A Special Christmas Guest (December Only)

9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

12-Acre Field

In 1787, George Washington paid 18 shillings to bring a camel to Mount Vernon. Stop by the 12-acre field to visit Aladdin, Mount Vernon's Christmas camel

Stirring Up the Season (December Only)

10 a.m.- 3 p.m. (Samples available 1 :30p.m. - 2 p.m. while supplies last)

Ford Orientation Center

Watch as the Historic Trades team takes seeds from a small tropical evergreen tree and turns them into the chocolate familiar to 18th-century Americans. 

learn about chocolate-making