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CHRISTMAS AT HISTORIC RUGBY

An Annual Historic Rugby Event
Saturday, December 1, and Saturday, December 8, 2007

Candlelit visits to traditionally decorated historic buildings; glimpses of 1880s Rugby Christmases, seasonal music, an award winning film and mural at the new Rugby Visitor Centre & Theatre, and a traditional Victorian dinner all await visitors to Christmas At Historic Rugby.  The annual holiday fundraiser will take place December 1 & 8 at the British-founded museum village atop the Cumberland Plateau.    
           
Six historic and reconstructed buildings will be open to visitors each Saturday, lit with candles and old-time oil lamps, and beautifully decorated with holly, ivy and evergreens, just as used by Rugby's early colonists.  Open buildings include the antique-filled founder's home, Kingstone Lisle, where Madame Margaret Hughes, the founder's mother, portrayed by Virginia Lovellette, will greet visitors.   The fragrance of plum pudding steaming on the kitchen wood stove will fill the house.  
           
Visitors will also be welcomed to 1880 Newbury House,  the Victorian-furnished Bed & Breakfast, where dramatic holiday readings from Rugby's 1880s newspapers by British native Mhairi Gehlhar will be presented in the candlelit parlor.
           
The Harrow Road Cafe will serve a four-course Christmas dinner by oil lamp light at two reserved  seatings each evening - 5:45 and 8:00 pm Eastern Time.   The menu includes: Champagne/Cranberry Punch, Smoked Oyster Pate w/Crackers, Potato-Leek Soup, Sherry Cream Chicken Breast w/Cranberry-Orange Stuffing, Curried Baby Carrots, Asparagus & Red Onion, Cheddar Spoon Rolls, Fresh Gingerbread w/Lemon Sauce & Whipped Cream, Beverages of Choice.  Recipe handouts will be provided. For event and dinner tickets and area lodging information, call Historic Rugby toll free at 1-888-214-3400 or locally at 628-2441. 
           
The new history film, Rugby: The Power of a Dream, will be shown several times each evening at the new Visitor Centre & Rebecca Jones Johnson Theatre.  A 32-foot wall mural at the centre shows Rugby as it looked in the 1880s.  Hot wassail will be served fireside at the Rugby Community Room where visitors can take part in old-time caroling led by musicians Tom Morgan and Lynne Hass.                                                                                               

At the Rugby Printing Works, the 1880s Chandler-Price letterpress will turn out hand printed hot wassail recipes for visitors.  Christmas treasure shoppers at the Rugby Commissary Museum Store and the Spirit of Red Hill Nature Art and Oddiments Shop will find many gift ideas from ornate Victorian cards and decorations to cookbooks, British preserves and teas, hand-crafted pottery, quilts, woven rugs, stained glass, dolls and baskets.  An authentically costumed St. Nicholas will give out candy to children of all ages.
           
Visitors can also attend a Lessons & Carols worship service at historic Christ Church Episcopal, held twice each evening.
           
Event hours are 4:00 to 9:00 pm Eastern Time each Saturday.  Event tickets are $9 for adults in advance or $10.00 at the Visitor Centre on either event day.   HISTORIC RUGBY MEMBERS ARE $6.00 and high school and elementary students are $4.00.  Dinner tickets must be purchased in advance and are $29, tax and gratuity included.  Christmas At Rugby proceeds after expenses help support the restoration and preservation of the National Register village.
           
Historic Rugby is 70 miles northwest of Knoxville on State Scenic Highway 52, adjoining the Big South Fork National Park.  It was founded in 1880 by British author and social reformer Thomas Hughes as an agricultural Utopia.  Today some 20 of its 1880s buildings remain in a rugged, river gorge setting.  The museum village is open daily, year-round offering building tours, historic lodging, food service, museum store and special events and workshops.