A feast for all of the senses

           BLOOMINGTON - A grand Christmas dinner featuring six courses of Victorian culinary delights, Gilded Age decorations and holiday activities, and stories about the "ghosts of Christmases past" is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, December 8 and 9, from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the David Davis Mansion State Historic Site in Bloomington.  The event is a fundraiser for the David Davis Mansion Foundation, and to reserve tickets for this limited seating engagement at $150 per person call (309) 828-1084.    

 

            Guests for the Christmas dinner gala will dine in the Mansion's formal dining room, where the table will be set with heirloom china, sparkling crystal and antique silver.  Service à la russe will begin at 6:30 p.m. with wassail in the parlor, followed by six lavish courses, each preceded by a sorbet or entremêts to clear the palate and each accompanied by the appropriate sauces, condiments, and wine or sparkling beverages.  At the end of the evening, guests will withdraw to the formal parlor to enjoy traditional Christmas music and games, and open Christmas gifts that were fashionable during the Gilded Age.  Stories about the "ghosts of Christmases past," including tales about Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, will add to the magical atmosphere.   

 

            Guests will enjoy the magnificently decorated 36-room Mansion festooned with evergreen boughs, an authentic German putz, a rare collection of antique Christmas ornaments, antique toys, a teddy bear tea party, and more than 15 Christmas trees from parlor to pantry, including a 12-foot Victorian tree in the sitting room, a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch snow tree, and five German goose feather trees.

 

The David Davis Mansion State Historic Site, built in the 1870s for U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis and his wife, Sarah, is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The site will be closed on Mondays, Tuesdays, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.  The Mansion is located at 1000 E. Monroe in Bloomington.