Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

15499 Indiana 245,Santa Claus IN 47579

19 December, 2020

Description

Experience America's oldest Christmas tradition In America, the practice of roasting chestnuts on an open fire dates to the time of its earliest settlers. The beloved family Christmas tradition continued for centuries until an early 1900's blight wiped out virtually every chestnut tree in America. As the chestnut trees vanished, so did the tradition of roasting chestnuts on an open fire. In 2006, Santa’s Candy Castle rekindled this once proud tradition by recreating an old fashioned chestnut roasting experience, just as it was done hundreds of years ago. We have continued to host this event every year, and it has grown to once again become a beloved family Christmas tradition. Over the past 14 years, our event has been largely unchanged. Christmas music plays while guests gather around the open fire & watch chestnuts being roasted in old-fashioned long-handled roasting pans. We share the history of the tradition: why it was so popular, why the tradition faded, and what we and others are doing to bring the tradition back. Guests sample roasted chestnuts and share their thoughts about the taste & about the overall chestnut roasting experience. Toward the end of each event, we invite guests to help roast chestnuts themselves, if interested. Over the years, the event has grown in popularity and often drawn large crowds. And then came 2020. There are new & ever-changing regulations over large events, particularly one like ours that involves preparation & consumption of food with extensive guest participation & interaction. As such, continuing the event in its previous form is unfortunately just not possible. Many similar events have simply been cancelled. But rather than just give up, we have worked extremely hard to develop a plan that we believe balances the need to meet new regulations, keep everyone safe, and continue the beloved tradition. The event will look a little different this year, but we believe it will still be a very special experience for you and your family. The biggest change to this year's event is that advanced tickets will be required to attend. This change was necessary to meet regulations on crowd size and social distancing. Tickets will be available exclusively through Eventbrite, with a limited number of tickets available. There will be two types of tickets: FREE ADMISSION TICKETS are the vast majority of available tickets. Each of these tickets reserves a socially-distanced space at the event for your family of up to 6 people. With this ticket you will enjoy virtually everything offered at past events, with the exception of the optional hands-on roasting experience offered toward the end of previous events. This change was necessary to eliminate the public passing/sharing of roasting pans and chestnuts. ROASTING EXPERIENCE TICKETS are available in very limited numbers. Each of these tickets reserves a socially-distanced space at the event for your family of up to 6 people, PLUS a roasting kit that will be used exclusively by your family to participate in hands-on chestnut roasting during the event. The roasting kit will be yours to keep after the event. The total ticket cost of $60 includes your own old-fashioned long-handled chestnut roasting pan (the pan itself currently sells for $59.95 on Amazon), your own chestnuts to roast & eat at the event, some extra chestnuts to take home, instructions for roasting at home, as well as all Eventbrite fees, credit card processing fees, and applicable sales tax. We look forward to the day that we can hopefully return to the way that this event has been done in the past. But in the meantime, despite all the challenges we face, we believe that this plan will enable us to safely continue this beloved family tradition, and hopefully still make it very special for you and your family.