Holiday Entertainments

Music of the African Diaspora

10 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. & 1:15 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Performances at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., & 2:30 p.m.

Bowling Green

Discover the music of Mount Vernon’s enslaved population with special guests SlamOne. Learn about how the enslaved incorporated music with African roots into their holiday celebrations.

Making Music

9:30 a.m. – 11:45 p.m. & 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Bowling Green

Explore the role music played within the enslaved community at Mount Vernon. Create an instrument inspired by those brought from Africa or recreated by enslaved people in the American colonies. 

Game Time

10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. & 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Greenhouse

Learn to play the card game “Loo” and try your hand at games like “Shut the Box” and “Nine Men’s Morris.”

Story Time

11 a.m. & 2 p.m.

Interpretive Center

Celebrate the holiday season with the story of the Continental Army’s Superintendent of Bakers who was determined to keep Washington’s troops fed. 

Dining with the Washingtons (November Only)

1 p.m. (Ticket Required)

Explore how the people who lived at Mount Vernon in the 18th century dined on a tour that takes you to the gardens, salt house, smokehouse, slave quarters, greenhouse, and the Mansion’s kitchen. 

Discover how food was grown, preserved, prepared, and served at Mount Vernon. You’ll leave this specialty tour knowing the Washingtons’ favorite recipes, what hired and enslaved servants at Mount Vernon ate, and why Martha Washington wasn’t a fan of Vulcan, Washington’s French hound.  

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A Special Christmas Guest (December Only)

9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

12-Acre Field

In 1787, George Washington paid 18 shillings to bring a camel to Mount Vernon. Stop by the 12-acre field to visit Aladdin, Mount Vernon’s Christmas camel. 

Stirring Up the Season (December Only)

10 a.m.- 3 p.m. (Samples available 1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. while supplies last)

Ford Orientation Center

Watch as the Historic Trades team takes seeds from a small tropical evergreen tree and turns them into the chocolate familiar to 18th-century Americans. 

learn about chocolate-making