A Very Merry Cape May

This is my time of year. I don’t care if the thermometer is sending me outside in a T-shirt, my vision is holding out for a white Christmas.
I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember. My tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving, whether that holiday is early or late, although I do draw the line at Christmas carols before Halloween, which some radio stations insist on playing.
My role here at the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) in Cape May has done nothing to dampen this enthusiasm for Christmas. On the contrary, it has probably edged my timetable up a few weeks, thanks to holiday preview weekend. We kicked off the season in Cape May the weekend before Thanksgiving with the opening of our Christmas exhibit in the Carroll Gallery here at the Physick Estate, which is where I spent more than 50 percent of my days for the three weeks prior to its opening, so Nov. 1 was really the start of the season for me.
Once again, we erected our giant Christmas tree. I’m not telling anyone anymore how it’s done. It’s Christmas magic; that’s the real answer. Beneath the tree, you’ll see our collection of nearly 150 Dept. 56 Dicken Village homes, churches, and landmark London buildings and accessories, as well as a train that threads its way among the buildings. The walls of the gallery, too, have just as much Christmas as they can carry, with lots of nostalgia to take you back to Christmases that you’ll remember from your Christmas past, as well as that of Ebenezer Scrooge.
The Physick House has been spruced up this year, no pun intended, with new garland entwined with new ribbon which shimmers as the Victorian members of the home’s household would have wanted it to, and you can step back into an 1890’s Christmas on a Physick Family Christmas House Tour with a member of the Physick household.
Christmas makes Cape May even more of a special place to visit as the town itself turns into the likes of a Dickens Village with the splendid Victorian architecture embellished with twinkling lights and fragrant garlands. Now in their 42nd year, MAC’s Christmas Candlelight House Tours are the best way to see the town at its holiday best and it’s a Christmas present you owe yourself. Get out and enjoy an evening of hospitality with friends or make some new ones as you visit homes, B&B inns and churches decked out for the season, and enjoy warm beverages at hospitality centers. The atmosphere and camaraderie of the Candlelight evenings is a world apart from the tension and misery that is all too typical of a trip to a shopping mall during the Christmas season, that it leaves you with a renewed feeling for the joy and wonder of this most wonderful of all holidays. There are still two left, on Dec. 12 and 19, so give your Christmas spirit a boost and join us.
This is a busy time of year for all of us here at MAC and, even though we put in long hours of planning and operation for all our holiday tours and events, we also feel an enormous sense of warmth and satisfaction as we take you through the Physick House, or welcome you to our Old-Fashioned Christmas exhibit or introduce you to one of our tours and know that we’ve helped to make your holiday special and one that you’ll remember for years to come. That’s your gift to us. 
Barraclough is director of publications and website at Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC).