ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JANET HAMOUS
Peabody will kick off the holiday season with its “Christmas Through the Decades” walking tour Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 29 and 30.
The event, sponsored by the Peabody Historical Society, will invite guests to relive Christmases past from 1871 to the present.
Guests will be guided through 11 scenes staged in Peabody’s downtown historic district. Local actors dressed in period costume will portray characters of the various time periods.
Attendees will learn what was on a lady’s Christmas list in the late 1800s, share a family’s sorrow at a war-time death, experience Christmas during the prosperous oil-boom years, peek inside a 1950s Gamble’s store, and remember the wild and crazy ’60s.
Jones advises guests to be on the lookout for a special guest appearance from the 1970s.
Music will be interspersed throughout the program, and the last stop on the tour will be at the city library, where guests may rest their feet and listen to music provided by ensembles of the Peabody Community Band.
Tours begin in the basement of Peabody’s Carnegie Library and leave every 20 minutes between 6 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 ($4 for children 4-12) and may be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by calling 620-983-2193.
For the convenience of guests who don’t want to cook dinner before the show, homemade soup and pie will be served at the Morgan House, 212 N. Walnut, beginning at 5 p.m. both evenings.
All proceeds will benefit the Peabody Historical Society.
