Dunham Farms' Holiday Festival of Lights and Music

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2013

Join us on December 14th for The Holiday Festival of Lights and Music, a yearly family event with food, music and hay wagon rides, a visit from santa, a scrumptious holiday dinner and more! All festival proceeds support non-profit Seabrook Village, its educational progams and historic buildings.

Visit this page starting Thusday, August 15th to make your reservations.

FOR KIDS & FAMILIES: Make a joyful noise!

Children are welcome to join an amazing washboard marching band! When everyone gets the hang of it, the kids will march around the grounds with the Dunham Farms' elves to light the huge live oaks strung with thousands of lights. The procession ends at the giant Christmas tree, signaling the arrival of Santa Claus by horse and carriage.

Candy Land: Face painting, fishing for fortune telling fish, games, story times, and a Santa Land holiday gift shop filled with goodies and souvenirs.

The Jingle Bell Express: Ride The Jingle Bell Express, an interactive wagon tour through the woods where kids ring bells each time a lighted animal or elf is sighted.

Children's Candle Ceremony: The children carry LED candles to place at the manger scene. There's family caroling to "sing in" the season and the food tent features kid's favorites such as hotdogs, soft drinks, hot cocoa, fruit and snacks.

FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN OVER 10: Illumination nighT

Illumniation Night: This festival is especially for adults and children over ten. Guests celebrate with a mulled wine reception and holiday music until dusk, when they are given candles to carry while carolers lead them through an avenue of lighted trees to the river. The candles representing holiday hopes and dreams, are set free on the tide to illuminate the night and begin the holiday season. Then return to the magnificent scene at Live Oak Hall for feasting, merriment and song highlighted by revelers bringing in the ceremonial boar's head.

After dinner, take a tour through the lighted grounds to the Victorian holiday cottage or hop on a wagon ride through the woods. And don't miss the Dunham Farms' gift shops, stocked with gorgeous and unusual ornaments, decorations and gifts.

Stay as long as you like to listen to holiday music and enjoy friends or family around the fire in this inspiring setting. Very different, very beautiful and very much in keeping with the spirit of the season.

Both festivals benefit award-winning Seabrook Village. Funds are used for maintenance of Seabrook’s historic vernacular architecture buildings, its prized collection of material culture artifacts, and its educational programs. Seabrook Village, Inc. is a non-profit, 501-c3 corporation. The festivals are underwritten in part by the generosity of the Coastal Electric Membership Corporation, through ticket sales and by private donations.

... for going green

Dunham Farms is known for being conservation focused. Our Holiday Festival is "green" as well as festive! We use environmentally-friendly LED lights, decorations are recycled for years to come, and many are handmade or are made from found materials.

... for giving back

Festival proceeds benefit the non-profit, award-winning Seabrook Village Foundation. Seabrook Village is a unique, African-American living history museum on the Georgia coast.

The Seabrook community was established through federal land grants made possible by General Sherman's "forty-acres-and-a-mule" policy. Freedmen settled as landowners on the lands they had worked as slaves. Armed with little but their freedom, a plot of land, and the determination to build a brighter future, the freedmen of Seabrook represent the African-American Pioneer Experience.
Courtesy of americantowns.com.

The Spirit of Christmas and friends take a moment to pet one of the farm's horses.