LERNA, IL – A Christmas holiday tradition that looks like it came straight off of a greeting card can be experienced during the Christmas Candlelight Tours scheduled for Friday and Saturday, December 9 and 10, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site near Charleston, Illinois.  The event is free and open to the public.

 

            Visitors are welcome to tour the Lincoln and Sargent Farms by candle lit paths to see how Christmas may have been observed by 19^th century Americans.  At the Lincoln Cabin, the family will gather around the hearth and share the evening socializing with neighbors, as was common with many farm families after the busy harvest season, all the while continuing to stay busy spinning wool, knitting, and performing other small tasks.

 

            Meanwhile, at the Sargent Farm, members of the family will celebrate the holiday with good food, simple decorations and readings from the Bible.  The celebration of Christmas as we know it today has roots in many Germanic traditions that immigrants brought with them to America.  One of those immigrants, the maternal grandfather of Nancy Sargent, may have continued his holiday traditions in America, and those will be explored as well.

 

            The trio “Motherlode” will perform in the Visitor Center and the Downstate Regional Sacred Harp Shape Note Singers will perform in the Harris Education Building.

 

            Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov), is an 86-acre pioneer farmstead that was the last home of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s father and stepmother.  It is located eight miles south of Charleston, and is open Wednesday through Sunday for free public touts.  For more information call (217) 345-1845 or visit www.lincolnlogcabin.org.