Christmas At The Fort

As part of village-wide celebrations, bring the family to the Apple River Fort State Historic Site on Saturday, December 3rd to celebrate Christmas the 1830’s way.

Learn the origins of our modern Christmas traditions - presents used to be exchanged on New Year’s Day! - and why many on the frontier considered Christmas the “Day-the-World-Turned-Upside-Down.” Visitors can experience a typical frontier German Christmas, complete with marzipan and a decorated fir tree - an oddity for the time! Hear about Mrs. Juliette Kinzie’s attempts to celebrate Christmas with the Ho-Chunk.

Children can try out...