After you’ve enjoyed your own Thanksgiving dinner, pay a visit to Billings Farm & Museum to learn how the holiday was celebrated many years ago. Visitors are welcome on Friday, November 24, through Sunday, November 26, from 10am to 4pm each day to view activities on the farm that demonstrate holiday preparations and the demanding work of bringing in the harvest. 

Billings Farm and Museum is a fully operational dairy farm and museum that dates back to 1871. It is the oldest registered Jersey dairy farm in the country, and demonstrations highlight Vermont’s rural heritage. More than 55,000 families and school groups visit each year to view cow milking and historical exhibits and to participate in interactive programs.

Groups and Events Coordinator Marge Wakefield answered a few questions about the weekend:

Q: How many years have you featured Thanksgiving on the Farm?

A: We have been featuring Thanksgiving on the Farm since the early 1990s. The annual attendance average over the three-day weekend is around 900.

Q: What can visitors expect?

A: The weekend will feature traditional cooking demonstrations in the farmhouse, horse-drawn wagon rides, farm tours, “Introduction to Milking” and “Milking the Herd” programs, and hands-on food preparation and preservation activities.

You’ll be welcomed to Frederick Billings’s farmhouse, where farm manager George Aitken and his family lived and worked from 1890 to 1910.

Visit with costumed interpreters as they demonstrate preparing traditional Thanksgiving fare in the kitchen. Relax in the Victorian parlor and learn how our American Thanksgiving traditions have evolved. Enjoy a cup of spiced cider before boarding the wagon pulled by a team of draft horses for a ride around the farm. In the education room, hands-on activities for all ages include “Making the Perfect Piecrust” and peeling apples for drying.

Q: What is new this year?

A: New holiday programs include “What’s for Dinner?” and a children’s story about Sarah Hale, the woman who saved Thanksgiving.

 

Billings Farm & Museum 69 Old River Road (Rte 12N & Old River Road), Woodstock, VT