Van Cortlandt House c. 1840 George Harvey (Anglo/American 1800-1878)
"Christmas in the Colonies," at the Van Cortlandt House Museum (Through January 10): Celebrants of Twelfth Night well know that the Christmas season is still upon us through this Wednesday (or thereabouts, depending on your custom). The Van Cortlandt House Museum, the former home of Frederick Van Cortlandt, famed Dutch patron, in New York's Van Cortlandt Park, offers a final week to experience the holiday the colonial way.
This 1748 high-Georgian home of dressed fieldstone welcomed Rochambeau, Lafayette, and Washington before becoming the city's first house museum in 1897.
The National Society of Colonial Dames in the City of New York, which has warmly operated the house for a century now, continues its old holiday traditions by laying out clogs of carrots and hay (rather than milk and cookies) for Saint Nick, reminding us of the good luck of "First Footings," and presenting a luscious Twelfth Night dessert in the home's East Parlor—all in the heart of the Bronx.
