The schedule and locations for events will be designated on a flyer handed out at the gate, to include: tableaux and props for selfies and group portraits (bring your own camera); children’s games from the 19th century; botanical-inspired thank-you cardmaking stations; ice-carving in action; live music; “make your own” cooking stations with local chef Holly Shelowitz; and a snow sculpture contest, as well as tea and cocoa and much more.
The public is invited to join in for a whole afternoon of activities, hiking and house tours, or just stop by for a taste of history, music and merrymaking while you bustle between errands. A horse-drawn wagon and a carriage, driven by Ghent horsemen from Once upon a Dream, will make a rare appearance at Olana for this event. The carriage ride costs $20 a person for a 30-minute ride, complete with warm blankets. Children under age 5 rode for free.
Admission to the Olana site for the day costs $25 per carload or $10 per person, or free with an Olana Partnership membership, which costs $50 annually. Tickets are available online at www.eventbrite.com/o/the-olana-partnership-events-6798991103. Bring cameras, wear warm clothes and footwear, and plan to visit multiple locations onsite, including the Wagon House Education Center and the Visitor Center at the top of the hill. There are both indoor and outdoor activities.
Jingle Jangle Winter Celebration, Saturday, December 26, 1-5 p.m., $25/$20, Olana State Historic Site, 5720 Route 9G, Hudson; (518) 828-1872, extension 105, [email protected], www.olana.org.
New Year’s Eve Millbrook offers family-friendly early-evening fun
Looking for something family-friendly to do in the late afternoon and early evening of December 31, to wear the kids out so that they’ll behave for the babysitter while you go out for your New Year’s Eve party of choice? Or just don’t feel like staying up until midnight? New Year’s Eve Millbrook 2016 offers plenty of entertainment options within a short walking distance. The fun begins at 4 p.m. and wraps up by 8:15.
The Millbrook Village Hall will be the setting for something unusual: Czech-American Marionette Theatre with Vit Horejs and his century-old marionettes. Half-hour performances of these Old World winter tales begin at 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.
At the Lyall Church Sanctuary, Larry Ham & Friends will play half-hour jazz sets beginning at 4, 5:30 and 7 p.m. Classical music takes over in the same location at 4:45, 6:15 and 7:45 p.m. as the Handman String Quartet performs. The Lyall Church’s Gathering Room will host Steve Johnson’s Magic Variety Show, beginning at 5, 6 and 7 p.m.
Three different spaces in the Grace Church will present live music as well. In the Church itself, one-man pop/rock band Vito Petroccitto, Jr. will play at 4, 5:30 and 7 p.m. The Grace Chapel will host the jubilant: Yiddish roots sounds of Metropolitan Klezmer at 4:45, 6:15 and 7:45 p.m. And pianist Peter Muir plays rags, blues and jazz in the Grace Parish Hall at 5 and 6 p.m.
There’s a lot going on at the Elm Drive Elementary School. In the gym, the popular Bindlestiff Family Cirkus (pictured above)does shows at 4, 5, 6 and 7 p.m. Continuously from 4 to 8 p.m., you can check out a model railroad display from the Hudson Valley Large Scale Railroad Club in one of the classroom; watch balloon-twisting by Button Down Balloons in another; and catch “beguiling roving characters” all around the building, roleplayed by the folks from Drama Queen Masks.
All this fun is bound to make your crew hungry, so add a visit to the VFW Post 9008 building, where hot dogs, chili, chips, cookies and beverages will be on sale to raise funds for the VFW. For more info, visit https://soggyfieldfarm.com/nyem2016.html. Have a safe and happy New Year!
Plenty of people avoid going out on New Year’s Eve because they dread sharing the roads with inebriated drivers, or because they are in recovery from alcohol abuse problems and don’t want to be surrounded by people who will make them feel pressured to drink. Recognizing this, more and more communities are offering family-friendly First Night-style celebrations as an appealing alternative to booze-fueled parties.
New Paltz Eve 2015 offers kids’ & teens’ activities, community dinner & bonfire
New Paltz Eve was inaugurated back in the 1990s, running for a few years, then lapsing. But one year ago the event was revived by the Greater New Paltz Community Partnership (GNPCP), a program designed to educate young people about the dangers of substance abuse and to offer a support system to folks in recovery.
New Paltz Eve redux was a smashing success last year, according to GNPCP project director Phoenix Kawamoto, with lots of support from churches, community organizations, local businesses and municipal agencies. So this year it’ll be back again, with activities for participants of all ages.
The day’s events begin at the New Paltz Youth Program’s Teen Scene, where a scavenger hunt game will be offered from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Children in the 3-to-5 age range can enjoy storytime and a craft activity at the Elting Memorial Library from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., followed by a family-oriented magic and comedy show with Macaroni the Clown at 4:30 p.m.
A free community dinner will be hosted by the New Paltz Methodist Church. “We’re going to have three different kinds of homemade chili: beef, turkey and vegetarian, served with rice, plus gluten-free cornbread and cookies and beverages. It’ll be continuous serve from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., or until we run out of food,” Kawamoto says.
After dinner, teens and 20-somethings can head over to the hall at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church for an alcohol-free coffeehouse. Live music will be provided by young local bands from 8 until 11 or 11:30 p.m., when everyone is invited to gather at Hasbrouck Park for a community bonfire celebration, with recorded music presented by local radio personality Michelle Taylor. Concessionaires will offer hot coffee, tea, cocoa and cider while a bonfire of wooden pallets is lit to welcome in the New Year.
With the exception of the snacks and drinks offered for sale at the coffeehouse and in the park, all the New Paltz Eve events are absolutely free, thanks to support from local businesses and other donors. Most of the activities happen indoors, so will go on regardless of the weather; the bonfire will happen only if it’s dry enough for the pallets to burn. The bonfire will be lit around 11:30 p.m. and likely take an hour or so to burn down.
It’s no coincidence that all the New Paltz Eve activities will occur in the village, within a few blocks of each other, so that participating families can leave their cars in one location. “The goal is to provide a substance-free event that is free for people…to be accessible, user-friendly and everything within walking distance,” says Kawamoto.
For additional information, call (845) 419-3678, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.newpaltzeve.org or www.facebook.com/events/1663410313876942.
Mochi Rice Cake Pounding party in New Paltz
While the Chinese New Year, calculated by a formula that factors in both solar and lunar cycles, falls between late January and mid-February, Japan officially converted to the Gregorian Calendar in 1873, and so shares our January 1 date for celebrating the turn of the wheel. Festive traditions associated with the Japanese New Year include sending postcards to friends updating them on family news and giving children decorated packets of money.
But like almost any holiday, much of the focus is on foods associated with the season that require some sort of elaborate, even ceremonial preparation. A popular activity is mochitsuki: a team effort to transform glutinous short-grain rice into sweet, sticky, chewy cakes that are then flavored with a variety of condiments, added to soup or used to construct a fancy centerpiece topped with a tangerine for good luck.
Nowadays mochi can be made in a machine, but the traditional way is by having two people take turns pounding the steamed rice in a large, bucketlike wooden mortar called a usu with a wooden mallet called a kine. The pounding is done in a slow, steady rhythm, allowing the second team member to stick his or her hands safely into the usu, turning and wetting the mochi as needed.
Like many laborious tasks around the world, mochi-making in Japan was turned into a festive community gathering, building up group anticipation for the holiday about to arrive. You can join the fun yourself in New Paltz on Sunday, December 27, where Japanese expatriate Youko Yamamoto has made Mochi Rice Cake Pounding an annual pre-New Year event at her restaurant, the Gomen-Kudasai Noodle Shop. Come swing the mallet and work off a few calories to make up for your indulgence in the free Japanese snacks that Yamamoto puts out!
Free and open to the public, the eighth annual Mochi Rice Cake Pounding runs from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 27. The Gomen-Kudasai Noodle Shop in the Rite Aid Plaza, at 232 Main Street in New Paltz. For more info, call (845) 255-8811, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.gknoodles.com.
Have a cuppa at the Val-Kill Tea Room in Hyde Park
Tea for two – or for you and a couple dozen of your closest friends – can be had in the historic Tea Room in Hyde Park, once owned by Eleanor Roosevelt. Built for the first lady in 1933, and known then as the Weaving Cottage or Val-Kill Tea Room, it was a place where royal guests visiting the Roosevelts could get a proper cuppa with all the trimmings. Now the Tea Room at Joseph’s Steakhouse offers scones and fancy sandwiches and a pot of perfectly brewed tea each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, by reservation.
Proprietor Joseph R. Wilson explains that all special items on the three- and four-course afternoon tea menus are freshly prepared, so it’s important to reserve a place at the table. With a selection of more than 20 Harney & Sons teas and caffeine-free tisanes to whet the whistle, afternoon tea costs $20 or $30 per person, and includes scones, finger sandwiches – deviled ham, classic tuna, egg salad, chicken salad, prime rib with horseradish sauce and the very English cucumber-and-cream cheese – assorted cheeses, vegetables and fruits, and petit fours and truffles to end the oh-so-civilized experience on a sweet note.
It’s said that Eleanor’s own cook ran the Tea Room back in the ’30s and ’40s. Sitting through a leisurely serving on a wintry day 70 or so years later, one can just imagine the setting created by this most practical and democratic first lady back in the day. Treat yourself and your friends. Call Joseph’s at (845) 473-2333 to reserve afternoon tea or a whole tea party. There’s a $10-per-person discount for parties of four or more.
