George Washington celebrated Christmas at Mount Vernon; the Thomas Jeffersons at Monticello and James Madison at his Montpellier estate. When not on some battlefield, Robert E. Lee spent his Christmases in Alexandria and at Arlington House. There were elaborate feasts, fox hunts, games, music and dancing.

The most serious thing about the Twelve Days of Christmas in colonial Virginia would have been the serious revelry!  Not unlike our modern-day New Year’s Eve festivities, Twelfth Night, in centuries past, was traditionally the most jovial and mischievous.  In fact,  George Washington was so fond of the last night of the Christmas Season that he chose Twelfth Night to wed Martha Dandridge Custis.