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Celebrate season by exploring 18th-century foodways at Mount Vernon. Visit the Discovery Cart to learn about holiday food traditions from black-eyed peas to Great Cake, watch as staff turns cacao seeds into chocolate, and join our Specialty Tour Dining with the Washingtons

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Offered

Cost

Included with general admission
Free for Mount Vernon members

Located At

Historic Area

“ I am pleased at the cause which has deprived us of your aid in the Attack of Christmas Pyes. We had one yesterday on which all the company (and pretty numerous it was) were hardly able to make an impression.” — George Washington, 1786

Activities

Black-Eyed Peas and Great Cake

9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. & 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.

South Lane, Outside the Kitchen

Explore the holiday food traditions brought to Mount Vernon by enslaved Africans, as well as those of the Washington family, at the Youth Programs Discovery Cart. 

Stirring Up the Season

10 a.m.- 3 p.m. (Samples available 1 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. while supplies last)

Ford Orientation Center

Watch as the Historic Trades team takes seeds from a small tropical evergreen tree and turns them into the chocolate familiar to 18th-century Americans. 

Learn about Chocolate-Making

 

Dining with the Washingtons

1 p.m. (Ticket Required)

Explore how the people who lived at Mount Vernon in the 18th century dined on a tour that takes you to the gardens, salt house, smokehouse, slave quarters, greenhouse, and the Mansion’s kitchen. 

Discover how food was grown, preserved, prepared, and served at Mount Vernon. You'll leave this specialty tour knowing the Washingtons’ favorite recipes, what hired and enslaved servants at Mount Vernon ate, and why Martha Washington wasn’t a fan of Vulcan, Washington’s French hound. 

Learn More

 

A Special Christmas Guest

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

12-Acre Field

In 1787, George Washington paid 18 shillings to bring a camel to Mount Vernon. Stop by the 12-acre field to visit Aladdin, Mount Vernon's Christmas camel