Today's Travel Finds: Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth, a Christmas by the Sea Package, Christmas Eve Dinner at Langham, Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurants in MA

A Festive Roundup...

For Christmas Eve Dinner at Langham Boston, Chef Sapienza and BOND Chef Nick Gurski prepare a festive four-course prix fixe feast in BOND restaurant ǀ lounge. Guests will have an array of choices and seasonal dishes including:

• Crispy duck confit with Macomber turnip puree, chicories and huckleberry
• Chilled northeast lobster and mussel escabeche with fennel, leeks and saffron oil
• Pineland Farms Black Angus sirloin with sweet potato croquettes, roasted marrow and grilled asparagus
• Bouche de Noel with Valrhona dark chocolate mousse

Cost of dinner: $90 adults, $55 children 5 to 12; Reservations: 5:00 - 10:00 p.m.

For more holiday fare that includes holiday getaways, festive Afternoon Tea, celebratory brunches and chocolate bar, visit www.langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/boston.

On the Boston Vegetarian Society's website, you can find a list of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Massachusetts. Visit www.bostonveg.org/restaurants.

Celebrate the holidays in Ogunquit, Maine. The Meadowmere Inn is offering a Christmas by the Sea package (December 8-10). 

Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth New Hampshire kicks off on December 1st. Now in its 13th year, the month-long celebration beckons with festive shows, strolls and shopping. For more information on the events, visit vintagechristmasnh.org

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Video courtesy of Peter B Helland on YouTube

Spotlight: An 1830s Thanksgiving Dinner at Old Sturbridge Village

Located in Sturbridge, MA, Old Sturbridge Village is an outdoor living history museum depicting life in rural New England in the early 19th century.

Today's Travel Finds: Lobster Tours

Video courtesy of The Nonantum Resort on YouTube

The Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport, Maine offers daily lobster tours in season.
https://www.nonantumresort.com/explore-kennebunkport/lobster-boat-tours

Enjoy a lobster buffet lunch on your Gloucester (Massachusetts) Lobster Cruise
http://www.toursofdistinction.net/tours/day-trips/gloucester-lobster-cruise

Globus' Cape Cod & The Islands 2018 itinerary includes a visit to Flax Pond Farms, a working cranberry bog, and a lobster & seafood bake.
https://www.globusjourneys.com/tour/cape-cod-the-islands/ao/

Vermont Bicycling and Walking Vacations' The Maine Coast: Purely Acadia tour delves into the life of a lobster fisherman; includes a classic lobster bake.
https://www.vbt.com/tours/maine-coast-purely-acadia

For the Holidays: Experience a Vermont Country Christmas, Elegance and Grandeur at Newport Mansions

Experience the sights, sounds, aromas and taste of a Vermont Country Christmas  The Inn At Round Barn Farm welcomes guests for the holidays, with a special package that includes 3-course gourmet breakfast daily, a cookie decorating class, hors d'oeuvres by the library fireplace and a sleigh ride for two. Visit website for more details.

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The Christmas season begins on Saturday, November 18, 2017 at Newport Mansions
The Breakers, The Elms and Marble House will be fully decorated and open daily for tours, except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, through January 1, 2018.

Step into a bygone era of elegance and grandeur—The decorations in each house (and individual rooms) are tailored to match the historic decor. Throughout the three houses, there will be a total of 30 decorated Christmas trees of all sizes, plus thousands of poinsettias, fresh flowers, evergreens and wreaths. Windows in each mansion are lit with individual white candles.

New this year: A large gingerbread model of each mansion will be on display in each kitchen, created by a local pastry chef. In the butler's pantry of The Breakers, a 9-foot Christmas tree will be decorated with ornaments made by 4th grade students at Newport's Pell Elementary School.

The traditional 15-foot tall red poinsettia tree will once again be on view in the Great Hall of The Breakers. Made up of up to 150 individual plants, the poinsettia tree is a perennial visitor favorite. On the second floor loggia, model train reproductions of the Vanderbilt family's New York Central Railroad will run through a vintage landscape, overseen by volunteers from the Little Rhody Division of the National Model Railroad Association.

At The Elms, a winter wonderland theme in the ballroom will feature period sleighs and lanterns, mannequins wearing vintage clothing, trees and a topiary horse. There will also be a "selfie" photo spot, where visitors can take their own photos surrounded by a gilded frame. Also on display at The Elms: a collection of vintage toys.

Marble House will feature two new Christmas trees on its first floor— in the gold ballroom and the library, as well as a large fresh-cut tree outside the front door, decorated with white lights to complement the white candles in the windows.

Among the three houses, there will be 24 decorated mantelpieces, each with its own theme. At Marble House, regional garden clubs will decorate the fireplace mantels in the second floor rooms in a competitive challenge. Each club will be given a subsidy for materials, and their creations will be judged by certified flower show judges.

For more information, visit www.newportmansions.org