NCMC Events From Around the State… November 30, 2009

1). Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens presents Christmas Candlelight & Grand Illumination, Saturdays, December 12 and 19, 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. - $15-adults, $6-students. Costumed guides will escort visitors through the first floor and cellar of the Palace and Kitchen Office, which will be outfitted for the holidays and lit with candle globes and fire baskets to create an ambiance of times past. Music and entertainment will take place throughout the Palace and gardens with costumed dancers, musicians, and dynamic performers giving shows of acrobatics, juggling, sword swallowing and more.

2). Joel Lane Museum House The Joel Lane Museum House, “The Birthplace of North Carolina’s Capital,” will sponsor its annual Colonial Christmas celebration on Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6, 2009 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Colonel Lane was a founding father of North Carolina’s capital city and an officer in the Militia during the American Revolutionary War. The house will be decorated with traditional greenery and will reflect the very different way in which colonists and early Americans celebrated the Christmas holiday.

3). State Capitol The tree-lighting tradition at the State Capitol will continue when Gov. Bev Perdue and First Gentleman Bob Eaves light the Christmas tree on Thursday, Dec. 10. The Junior Women’s Club and State Capitol staff sponsor this free, public celebration. It starts at 5 p.m. with luminaries being lit and holiday music by the Kernersville Glenn High School Chorus. The governor and first gentleman will move to the South grounds at 6:15 p.m. to officially begin the ceremony. The lit tree will be visible the length of Fayetteville Street.

4). Historic Stagville Grab your mittens, scarf and holiday wish list and head to Historic Stagville for Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters for free family fun. Bluegrass and Appalachian music, African American drumming and storytelling, artisans, and Durham barbecue, will offer a generous dose of unique history on Dec. 5, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

5). Robeson County History Museum will host the fourth Christmas Home Tour on Saturday, December 12, 2009 from 1pm until 5pm and features five homes and the museum.

6). Asheville Art Museum The Asheville Art Museum proudly presents Lorna Blaine Halper: The Space Between from Saturday, December 12, 2009 to Sunday, May 9, 2010. The public is invited to an Opening Reception Sunday, December 13, 2009 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. This exhibition celebrates the work of Lorna Blaine Halper (1924- ) in a solo show at the Asheville Art Museum as part of the Museum’s overall commitment to collecting and preserving the work of Black Mountain College artists.

7). Kings Mountain Historical Museum is proud to announce the opening of the Seventh Annual Trains, Trains, Trains Exhibit on Tuesday, December 1st through Saturday, January 9, 2010. The Piedmont 'S' Gaugers will have their interactive trains running for everyone to enjoy. Several train collectors from the area will exhibit their prized possessions along with great railroad memorabilia. The Trains will be running at the Museum before and after the Kings Mountain Christmas Parade on Saturday, December 5th and during Mountaineer Christmas on Friday night, December 11th, from 5:30 – 8:30pm.

8). Textile Heritage Museum presents 8th Annual Glencoe Village Christmas Tour on Saturday, Dec 5, 11-5 pm & Sunday, Dec. 6, 1-5 pm. Come see this destination mill village, wonderfully restored for today's upscale living. Tour several beautifully restored village homes, all decorated for Christmas. Visit the elegant mill owner's house on 62 N, adjacent to the village, and the adorable Butler-Chauffeur House behind it. Take the narrated trolley ride around the village. Visit the Textile Heritage Museum (also a restoration) and try your hand at weaving.

9). Museum of the Cape Fear Ring in the holiday season at the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex on Sunday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 5 p.m. This year’s theme is A Children’s Christmas, and the young and young at heart will have plenty to see, hear and do at the museum, 1897 Poe House and Arsenal Park. Admission is free.

10). Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site A typical Christmas for John and Amy Harper and their nine kids would have involved handmade crafts and home cooked goodies. The intrusion of the Civil War turned their home into a military hospital, but the fighting was still far away during Christmas. The Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site will host a Christmas Open House on Saturday, Dec, 5, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., to show Christmas on the home front during war time.