This holiday season, WHRV and WHRO-FM invite listeners to step back 250 years and experience Christmas as it was celebrated in colonial Virginia.
On Sunday, December 21, at 6 p.m., tune in to WHRV 89.5 for “Christmas in Colonial Virginia,” part of the station’s special Sunday evening programming hosted by Barry Graham. This broadcast explores how Virginians celebrated the season in the 18th century, when they still considered themselves English and drew heavily from British holiday traditions. Listeners will hear about festive gatherings, elegant meals, caroling, dancing, and other social and religious rituals that marked the Christmastide.
We’ll also explore the Revolutionary years and how these customs were disrupted. By 1775-76, with battles on Virginia soil and British forces threatening Norfolk, families faced scarcity, uncertainty, and the harsh reality of conflict. Traditional celebrations were curtailed, and the warmth of Christmastide was overshadowed by fear and loss.
Yet, over time, these colonial traditions were reclaimed and preserved. Today, many of them, like decorating with greenery, gathering for music and feasts, and honoring the season through song and celebration, continue to shape how Virginians experience Christmas.
If you cannot listen on Sunday, you have another chance at noon on Christmas Eve. And after that, at 2 p.m., WHRO-FM presents a special edition focusing on the music of the colonial holiday season, bringing to life the sounds that once filled homes, churches, and halls across Virginia.
Listeners will hear elegant sonatas, lively tunes, the solemn strains of Purcell’s “Dido’s Lament,” and the haunting spiritual “Rise Up, Shepherds.” Each piece evokes a different facet of the season and the colonial times: joy, contemplation, longing, and hope.
Together, these programs offer a journey through time: from the English-inspired holiday traditions of colonial Virginia, through the disruptions of war, to the enduring customs that remain part of our celebrations today.
These special holiday programs are part of “Revolution 250: Stories from the First Shore,” a series chronicling America’s semiquincentennial through the people, actions, and events that shaped the nation. For listeners who want to dive deeper into the stories, the series is also available as a podcast at whro.org/USA250.
Don’t miss this journey through time and the sounds of a colonial Christmas!
