________________ OYSTER BAY _______________
HERALD Being Rudolph for the day
Christmas tree lighting in hamlet
Celebrating the festival of lights
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VOL. 124 NO. 51
DECEMBER 16 - 22, 2022
$1.00
A holiday walk down memory lane Wright, was 19, she went caroling with her friends at 5:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day. The Whaling Museum and “Imagine snow and horses on Education Center of Cold Spring the road instead of cars,” BrownHarbor had something special in ing-Atkinson said as several cars store for visitors this holiday sped by. season. For the first time, it hostBut a typical whaling family ed the Holiday in which the man Walking Tour, an of the house was hour-long journey still working would into the hamlet’s probably not celestoried past. brate Christmas at Clutching cups home. “They might of hot cocoa, a celebrate it on the dozen or so people ship, which dewalked along Main pended on where Street last Saturthe captain wanted day, learning about the feast to be,” the whaling comBrowning-Atkinmunity that Cold BAYLEE son said. “But at Spring Harbor was BROWNINGthe sight of a known as in the whale, all boats mid-19th century. ATKINSON were lowered and Tour guide Baylee Tour guide, Whaling it was all hands on Browning-Atkin- Museum deck.” son told them that Jo a n L owe n residents at the thal, the gift shop time sometimes celebrated manager at the museum, conThanksgiving, Christmas, New ducted most of the research for Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day a the tour with the assistance of bit differently than we do today. Brenna McCormick-Thompson, The first stop was the home the museum’s curator of educaof Capt, James Wright, built in tion. They looked online and at 1894. It was a retirement home the library, searching through for the captain, and his family copies of The Long-Islander, a who celebrated Christmas there in 1897. When his daughter, Eva CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
By LAURA LANE llane@liherald.com
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Elisa Dragotto/Herald
Happiness on skates Ailyn Smyth, 6, loved every minute of ice skating at the Holiday Market and Tree Lighting last Saturday. More photos, Page 6.
Vocal ensemble adds old-fashioned seasonal cheer to chamber’s Stroll By WILL SHEELINE wsheeline@liherald.com
It’s hard to imagine the holiday season without carolers serenading the community. For the first time this year, Oyster Bay Holiday Stroll featured a group of professional singers. To prepare for the first postpandemic Stroll, the Oyster BayEast Norwich Chamber of Commerce contacted local business
owners and organization directors, asking if anyone knew any professional singers. Amy Reilly Hanley, the chamber’s executive director, explained that the organization wanted to have carolers out and about to evoke a sense of old-fashioned holiday cheer. “We thought it’d be really cool if we had some people who are walking around and singing,” Reilly Hanley said. “It just seemed like a great way to add to
the sense of holiday spirit.” The chamber included Harriet Clark, executive director of Raynham Hall Museum, in the email blast, and Clark recommended the museum’s head of visitor services, Christopher Judge. Judge has been a member of the choir at Christ Church in Oyster Bay for the past 13 years, singing baritone. Christ Church was famously where President CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
eople think Christmas is commercialized now, but it was then, too.