If there is a true magic to the winter holiday season, it comes from hope. Hope that the light will return. Hope that this year will be a little better. Hope that goodness is born anew from humble surroundings. Hope for a kiss under mistletoe or a thoughtful gift under the tree. Maine is where you go to look for hope in the darkest time of year. A Maine vacation at December time can provide the spark of belief in the spirit of the season. Here are five of our favorite Christmas traditions of MidCoast Maine.
Feast of the Seven Fishes (The Causeway at The Craignair Inn)
All winter at The Craignair we find reason to gather and feast as often as possible. Here at The Causeway we plan fixed price pairing dinners with international themes and set them one Thursday night of the month until May. We partner with local breweries, wine distributors, sommeliers, mixologists, and master distillers to plan beer, wine, and spirit pairings. Our Executive Chef creates menus with many courses, depth and breadth of flavor. And we throw a party! Well, a series of them. For those who love to eat and drink, it's a wonderful way to socialize. The experience is immersive, delicious, and always has a companiable cozy atmosphere. They are lively evenings where our guests are talking about food, local beer, varietals of wine, terroir, great meals, beautiful cultures, and trips taken or dreamed of. It's always lovely. And December's is a particular favorite. On Thursday, December 19th The Causeway is putting on a traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes, a Christmas Eve ritual supper with roots in Roman Catholic Italian American homes, when eating meat was anathema on certain holy days, known as fasting days.
We are in a good position to host a seafood feast, as our inn and restaurant are located right on the Atlantic Ocean. We have relationships with fishermen and aquaculture entrepreneurs, who are our vendors, neighbors, patrons, and friends. We live in a lobstering community, after all. The people in our town go off shore scalloping, fishing for haddock, halibut, cod, and other deep sea fish; they haul crab and gather clams from the shore. We know many folks who grow mussels, oysters, and harvest delicious and nutritious edible seaweeds like sugar kelp and bladderwrack. So you see, there could not be a better theme or guiding principle to showcase the natural resources locally available and abundant just outside our door. Celebrating this feast will steep you in tradition; you may recall childhood Christmas Eves of gluttony before midnight mass, or maybe the experience will broaden your horizons. The dinner is distinctly Italian-American, brought by immigrants from Naples in the 19th century. We love that we are building upon that tradition and host a party that many of our guests look forward to as part of their holiday celebrations. Buy your tickets now!
Rockland, Maine Festival of Lights
The Craignair Inn by the Sea is located in the fishing village of Spruce Head on the St. George Peninsula. While we have a small village center, the nearest large town is Rockland, Maine. Rockland is the art capital of Maine, and home to many important museums, galleries, and restaurants. It is sophisticated yet rustic, with roots as a working waterfront community. We love Rockland all year, but at Christmas it is especially wonderful. During the Festival of Lights, held annually the weekend following Thanksgiving, the town is buzzing with traditions old and new. A Christmas tree constructed of lobster traps is built on a hill overlooking the harbor. Next to the tree, Santa’s workshop appears every year, where the jolly old elf listens to the wishes of local children. There is a mailbox to the North Pole in case your list is written down. Santa Claus arrives by boat at the public landing the day after Thanksgiving. A crowd gathers to welcome him in; musicians play and carolers sing as Santa takes his place on his throne.
The following night, which this year is Saturday, November 30th, is the night parade, when local businesses and organizations decorate floats with lights and seasonal themes and make their slow march down charming Main Street. There are vendors selling freshly popped corn and hot cocoa, and hundreds of residents and visitors line the street to watch the spectacle. It’s such a cheerful time, when you run into old friends, children dash into the street to collect candy, and plans for the holidays are devised. Throughout that weekend, there will be horse drawn carriage rides around downtown. The Farnsworth art museum opens its doors for a community party, complete with a room filling electric train set and Victorian village in the Wyeth Center, located one block back from the museum proper. The trees along historic Main Street are lit with colored ornaments and the shop windows are full of glittering toys and gifts for children of all ages. It feels like Christmas from some other place, a far off simpler time.
Christmas by the Sea in Camden, Maine
Camden, Maine, 20 minutes north of Rockland along Route 1, has its own holiday charm and distinct Christmas festivities. There is another opportunity to meet the boat that brings Santa, and another nighttime parade. Camden’s Main Street leads up a hill, to the public library, amphitheater, and park above the harbor. When it snows, this park is home to the perfect hill for sledding. The town sets up huge hay bales to act as a barrier, but the feeling you get is sledding down toward the ocean with a brisk sea breeze and all the sails and wharf shops decorated with pine boughs and red bows. It is another perfect place to celebrate the cold season and wait for the return of the solar light. Food trucks and bonfires on the beach are common there at this time of year and if you don’t happen to find a holiday party outdoors, you can always pop into one of the many shops or restaurants for something warming and cheerful.
The Shops of Main Street
Speaking of shops, Rockland and Camden both have so many stores for keeping your holiday dollars in the local Midcoast Maine economy. In Rockland we love hello hello books and Arctic Tern books for new novels and nonfiction. hello hello has been a Rockland institution for over a decade and currently specializes in social justice and feminist titles. Arctic Tern is newer and luxurious, with an emphasis on contemporary poetry, philosophy, and spirituality. Both stores stock loads of new novels as well as lovely ephemera for the holidays. Archipelago sells high end crafts made by Maine artisans, and is under the umbrella of the important Island Institute. The Farnsworth has a very good museum gift shop, full of note cards and ornaments, coffee table books, art supplies, and interesting objects for the home. The Black Parrot is full of astonishingly good things, from the best tea pots, coffee makers, mugs, soaps, sweaters, candles, shoes, hats, books, wooden toys, notebooks, oyster knives, shaving accessories, genteel kitchenwares and other fine home goods; everything there is beautiful and extremely high quality. We love it especially for stocking stuffers. Fiore sells olive oils and vinegars and other condiments and edible delights, all of which you can sample with bread before buying. Get gift certificates for The Strand, our indie movie theater and live performance venue, support the work of wildlife scientists at The Puffin Project Visitor Center. Stock up on outdoor gear at Maine Sport Outfitters. 412 is a woman's boutique with super luxe clothes and accessories. The overall feeling of shopping on Main Street at Christmas time is blissful and outside of time. We always like to end the outing with an omakase platter of sushi from the phenomenal Suzuki's.
Yule Tide in St. George
Bringing us back home to our own St. George, where we celebrate the start of the season by lighting up not a Christmas tree, but an enormous metal sculpture of St. George, of course on horseback, fighting a fearsome dragon with his mighty sword. Light up the Knight, which falls on Friday, December 6th this year is small town sincerity at its best. The school children sing carols and the old timers band plays along; there are cookies and hot chocolate and impromptu games of tag. During Yule Tide in St. George homes and businesses around the peninsula compete for the best decorated edifice, and it’s always nice to take a scenic and starry nighttime drive on dark evenings, listening to Christmas music and looking for the prettiest displays.
In the years since Greg and Lauren have owned the Craignair Inn, we’ve begun our own traditions that we hope last for many years to come. We always participate in the Toys for Tots donation program. We love hosting Christmas parties for local companies and families. This year our own staff party is going to be a sleepover at the inn, which will be a wonderful opportunity for everyone who works here to stay here, to bring their families and indulge in the food, drink, and atmosphere that we work so hard to create all year. The culmination of the winter holidays, New Year’s Eve, is always a dazzling time at The Causeway Restaurant. Neighbors and guests love dressing up in sparkling gold and black, with top hats and tiaras, noise makers and flutes of champagne to ring in the new year and say so long to the year that is ending.
We hope you have a chance to visit the stunning coast of Maine this holiday season. It really is delightful, magical, and retains the sense of wonder and awesomeness that seems to be receding elsewhere in the world. If you are looking for a Christmas less focused on consumerism, on giving and getting and rushing and spending, this is the place for you. Have an experience, share a meal, give the gift of your presence together somewhere wild and welcoming. Book your perfect holiday getaway here!