Would you like to create a unique, fun holiday memory this Saturday night for somebody special and yourself as well? Great! You can, thanks to Natchez Pilgrimage Tours and the Pilgrimage Garden Club.

Longwood, one of our nation’s treasures right here in Natchez, is illuminated and beautifully decorated for a live, warm, heartfelt reenactment of Christmastime, 1862. You will experience the inhabitants exactly as they were just seven months before the fall of Vicksburg.

Frederick, personal valet of Dr. Nutt, Longwood’s builder, will greet you at the door, as family members, portrayed by Longwood docents, welcome you in each room and tell you the stories of the day.

Tours begin as you arrive and continue from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Refreshments are served in the dining room, giving you a chance to meet other people like yourself, who love history and value its preservation. Period music will be playing in the background, and if you feel inspired, dancing is encouraged.

“The tour is unique in a couple of ways,” said Marsha Colson, president of NPT and PGC. “The reenactment itself brings the story to life and afterward guests may linger and enjoy Longwood in a more leisurely way than is possible on regular tours. People find that on this type of tour, they notice things they have missed on other tours. They leave with a sense of what it was like to live in the home.”

Another benefit of this special tour is that you are allowed to walk around the unfinished floors, which are exactly as they were the day Vicksburg fell, and the workers, all from Pennsylvania, dropped their tools where they were standing and headed back north.

Admission is $15 for adults age 19 and up, $6 for students 6 through 18 and children under 6 are free.

You may purchase tickets online at natchezpilgrimage.com or visit www.nptshop.com, or call 800-647-6742 or locally 602-446-6631.

Longwood is located at 140 Lower Woodville Road in Natchez, just past John R. Junkin Drive.

 

Jack Kelly is an organizer of Christmas a Longwood.