desserts and succulent sweets. In the 

 dining room, there are jumbles (18th- 

 century sugar cookies) in the shapes of 

 circles, pineapples, flowers and 

 strawberries. Miniature orange trees 

 made of sphagnum moss droop with 

 edible marzipan oranges, while cream 

 puff swans glide on a mirror pond. 



Tour the kitchen and meet the 

 governor's cooks, baking hams over a 

 spit and brushing flour off their noses. 

 Carolers dot the lawn, twittering 

 holiday tunes. Elegant ladies and 

 gentlemen perform period dances in the 

 palace's ballroom, and the governor's 

 assistants let guests in on the little 

 secrets of the house. 



The Christmas Secrets tours take 

 small groups through the palace and 

 historic sites to explain the exhibits, 

 from the wreaths, garlands and flower 

 arrangements to the cakes and cookies. 

 They're led by Shirley Willis, coordina- 

 tor of the historic foodways program, 

 Linda Stancill, a palace decorator, and 

 others involved in the decorating 

 process. 



Although the patterns, materials 

 and plants used in the palace were all 

 available during the 18th and 19th 

 centuries, they're used now in ways that 

 the Tryons and their contemporaries 

 wouldn't have in 1770, Willis says. 

 Termed "Colonial Revival," the 

 decorations are based on designs seen 

 in furniture or art of the period, but 

 dressed up to create dazzling displays. 



The fresh fruit that graces the 

 mantels, doorways and wreaths would 

 have been considered far too valuable 

 to waste on decorations, Stancill says. 

 And while the Tryons would have made 

 do with simple greenery, these rooms 

 and homes are dressed to impress. 



The palace relies on historians and 

 "interpreters" such as Willis and 

 Stancill to keep the decorations 

 accurate or to point out where they've 

 been dressed up. These interpreters 

 study the details of history year-round 

 and portray the palace as it stood in the 

 1 700s through crafts, decorations, food 

 and costumed characters. 



Minuet dancers in Tryon Palace council chamber 



♦ John Wright Stanly House 

 (ca. 1783) 

 For a more realistic interpretation 

 of Christmas in the late 1700s, visitors 

 can tour the John Wright Stanly 

 House. 



"This is an interesting counter- 

 point," Hicks says. "The Stanly house 

 is closer to what the palace would have 

 looked like when the Tryons were 

 living there." 



The Stanly family probably 

 followed the time-honored tradition of 

 dressing the home with greenery, 



though these decorations might seem 

 surprisingly plain to 20th-century eyes. 

 Small vases full of holly or pots of 

 spring flowers from forced bulbs could 

 cheer chilled winter spirits. This 

 holiday decor is modeled on "Christ- 

 mas Gambols," a period print that 

 hangs in the house and shows people 

 gathered around a punch bowl and 

 playing card games. The only hint of 

 Christmas was the greenery in the 

 vase, Hicks says. 



"This house shows a strictly 

 period 18th-century Christmas," she 



4 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1996 



