Celebrate the holiday season with outdoor activities at Pottsgrove Manor’s Frost Fair

Pottsgrove Manor’s 2nd annual Frost Fair offers a unique way to celebrate the season that involves getting your kids some physical activity outdoors.

If you bundle up the family on Sunday, Dec. 10, and head to the 18th-century manor in Pottstown from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., your children will get to play some games like children of the past.

We always like to get the kids involved,” said Anna Meitzler, the museum’s assistant who also conducts tours. “It’s a good way to get them off the PlayStations.”

They will offer games like Nine-Pins, which is similar to bowling; Hoop Rolling, where you have to both balance and roll a large wooden hoop with the aid of a stick; and Game of Graces, which is most fun when played with two people.

“Each person has two sticks and you fling a hoop to your partner and play catch,” she said. “It’s interesting to see how kids entertained themselves at that time.”

18th-century holiday traditions

In addition to children’s games, the festival offers an opportunity to explore the history of 18th-century holiday traditions and do some holiday shopping.

“We’ll have handmade goods by local individuals, there will be cooking in the outdoor bake oven, we’ll have living history cooks doing a cooking demo in the kitchen over the hearth, a blacksmith will be doing a demo, and we’ll have a harp player, “Meitzler said.

There will be handmade goods offered by about twenty local vendors.

“The grounds will be set up with a modern and historic vendor market,” she said.

You can find items such as wooden spoons, woven textiles, candles, soaps, crocheted items and jewelry.

“You can find interesting, handmade gifts that are a little bit different,” Meitzler said. “Our shop will also be open.”

The indoor and outdoor event offers self-guided tours of the house’s eight rooms and great hall.

“Staff and volunteers will be positioned throughout the museum,” she said. “Living history interpreters will be in period dress.”

John and Ruth Potts

Home to John and Ruth Potts and their 13 children, the celebrations surrounding Christmas that took place at Pottsgrove Manor in the early 18th century would have been very different from how we celebrate today.

“Christmas Day was a somber day of religious observance,” she said. “If they left the house, it would be to go to church.”

During your visit to the Frost Fair, you will have the opportunity to learn about the traditions of Twelfth Night and how they are similar and different from our modern traditions.

“They would celebrate over the 12 days with the culmination happening on Jan. 6 when you would have your big party,” Meitzler said. “There would be a lavish meal, and they would indulge in food and drink and play games — it would be a loud, raucous party. Gift giving wasn’t a big part of the Twelfth Night tradition at all.”

Roots of first Frost Fair

The first Frost Fair has roots stemming from the early 1600s in London, England.

“They would have these Frost Fairs over the River Thames when it would freeze,” Meitzler said.

A British Colonial family, Meitzler said the Pottses were loyal subjects of the crown when the house was built in 1752.

“John Potts identified as an English subject,” she said.

Period holiday decorations

Pottsgrove Manor’s Frost Fair offers a chance to see the Potts’s historic home outside of normal visiting hours, plus you’ll also have a chance to see period holiday decorations.

“You will see evergreens and boughs of holly that would be in each window pane,” Meitzler said. “They used whatever was at their disposal outside, such as evergreens and boxwood bushes — it was very natural.”

Other decorations might’ve included a special candle.

“You might have some of your nicer bayberry candles on display,” she said. “It was a time-honored tradition to burn one full taper on Christmas Eve and one on New Year’s Eve for good luck.

Meitzler shared an old saying related to the tradition:

“A bayberry candle burned to the socket brings food to the larder and luck to the pocket.”

Even more at the Manor

Witness the transformation of Pottsgrove Manor for the yuletide season and reveal the traditions of an 18th-century Twelfth Night party during the Twelfth Night Holiday Tours. Twelfth Night marked the end of the Christmastide season, celebrated on Epiphany. Guided tours of the manor explore all aspects of the festivities, from the intense preparations to the differences between the way elite families like the Potts and their household staff experienced the season. Uncover the links of winter traditions both old and new at Pottsgrove Manor. Twelfth Night tours are offered during regular museum hours through Jan. 7. Hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and holidays

Pottsgrove Manor’s Holiday Frost Fair will be held Sunday, Dec. 10 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is free. Donations are accepted. Offsite is available at Pottstown Memorial Park, 75 W. King St., with a complimentary shuttle running to and from Pottsgrove Manor. The Fair is weather-dependent, follow Pottstgrove Manor on Facebook. For More Information, visit www.montgomerycountypa.gov/930/Pottsgrove-Manor