Each November, interior designers and garden clubs decorate the Spanish Revival Vanderbilt Mansion, and hundreds of visitors see the results after Thanksgiving. The decorators create enchanted rooms with lighted trees, boughs, ornaments, poinsettias, wreaths, ribbons, and beautifully wrapped faux gifts.
Visitors can see the enchanting results – and enjoy a trip back in time – when they take a special evening Candlelight Tour of the Vanderbilt family’s private living quarters. Tours are available on two more Saturdays: December 13, and 20, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.
Sponsored by Northwell Health
Tour tickets are available ONLINE ONLY (no tickets will be sold at the door): $14 for adults, $10 seniors/students (senior age 62 plus/student with ID), and $8 for children age 12 and under. Members receive complimentary tickets.
The holiday season is one of the few times each year when the mansion – listed on the National Register of Historic Places – is opened to visitors at night. Guests in the grand waterfront home once included famous Americans and British royalty.
Elizabeth Wayland-Morgan, Executive Director of the Museum, said, “These generous volunteers use their time and talent to create an atmosphere of charming holiday grandeur and sophisticated living. We’re grateful to them for bringing magic to this historic house.”
Decorators included the Nathan Hale, Three Village, Centerport, Asharoken, and Dix Hills garden clubs. Also contributing to the festive décor was designer Gabrielle O’Reilly Hoffman of Centerport, who decorated the tree in the vestibule of the Memorial Wing and hand-crafted the huge, distinctive bow that is the striking centerpiece of the stairwell.
Join the Grateful Dead tribute band Half Step in the Reichert Planetarium for two incredible live performances combined with laser lights, space imagery, and immersive psychedelic landscapes. The same show will be offered at 7:00 and 9:00 pm
Advance tickets online: adults $35, members $30; age 15 and under $30. At the door: adults $40, members $30; age 15 and under $30.
Half Step is a group of dedicated fans and students of the Grateful Dead that captures the spirit, improvisation, sound & complexity of Grateful Dead music.
Established in 2004 on Long Island, Half Step has been mastering their craft while winning over crowds of veteran Deadheads, newcomers, and non-Dead fans alike.
Like the Grateful Dead themselves, the band is constantly pushing the envelope, growing together as musicians and performers. Only true fans that have experienced and studied the music with an extreme level of dedication and passion can accurately represent the superb body of work that the Grateful Dead have to offer.
Half Step has what it takes to present the Dead's music to even the most critical of fans. Anyone who has experienced the Grateful Dead in one way or another has formed a unique impression of their music. Half Step has the rare privilege to be in the position to share their collective impression with you.
