The Smithtown Historical Society hosted a Spring Farm Festival on Sunday, May 16.
Families were able to enjoy all the historical society’s farm has to offer with children’s games and crafts, pony rides, a petting zoo, sheep shearing, blacksmithing, wool dyeing, food trucks, local vendors and more.
The Smithtown office of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty has partnered with the Smithtown Historical Society to assist with and donate to various community and children’s programs.
The team kicked off the program in February with the first of an ongoing monthly donation of a cooler full of food that children can feed to the rescued farm animals in residence at the Smithtown Historical Society Farm. They also adopted a pony and a sheep, providing for their veterinary and other needs.
In March Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty sponsored “Irish Luck on the Farm,” a celebration Irish heritage with a petting zoo, Irish Step Dancing, limericks and general family fun. April found the Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty team sponsoring the ever popular Easter Egg hunt at the farm, providing sunglasses, lemonade, iced tea and colored chalk for the families to enjoy.
“The Smithtown Historical Society is very special to Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty and we committed to supporting their family programs,” said Jacqueline Clancy, sales manager for Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty’s Smithtown and Stony Brook offices. “We thought our help would be great, for not only the animals and Historical Society, but for the community to come and enjoy outdoor activities close to home.”
Join the Smithtown Historical Society for an evening of Goat Yoga on April 19 and April 30 at 5 p.m. or 6:15 p.m. in the field behind the Brush Barn at 211 E. Main Street, Smithtown. All levels welcome. Kelly Mitchell from The Buddha Barn will lead you through a 45 minute practice of yoga with friendly, interactive goats from the Steppin’ Out Ponies and Petting Zoo. BYO mat and water. For ages 17 and older. Tickets are $28 per person on Eventbrite. Questions? Call 631-265-6768.
The Smithtown Historical Society opened its grounds for a few Easter egg hunts Saturday, April 3.
Partnering with the Smithtown Center for the Smithtown Performing Arts Center, the historical society offered socially-distanced visits with the Easter Bunny, opportunities to pet the animals on the grounds, creating holiday treats with Myra Naseem from Elegant Eating and more.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Smithtown Historical Society, 239 E. Main St., Smithtown hosts a special free event, Love on the Farm, on Saturday, Feb. 13 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Treat your sweetheart to an afternoon of fun romantic activities down on the farm! Enjoy a walk around the property with a petting zoo experience and multiple photo opportunities. Hot cocoa, s’mores, and flowers will be available for purchase. For more information, call 631-265-6768.
The Smithtown Historical Society has received a grant of $2,000 from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation for expenses generated during Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order, New York State on PAUSE. The announcement was made in a press release on Jan. 4.
“We received the grant in 2020 when the times were rough, and we had canceled all our fundraising events due to COVID-19. We used the grant money at a very crucial time,” said Executive Director Priya Kapoor. “We are grateful to the Gardiner Foundation for their support during these extraordinary times!”
The Smithtown Historical Society, 239 E. Main St., Smithtown seeks committed, long-term volunteers to join them in preserving our shared local history. Open positions include buildings and groundskeeping, beautification/decorating, children’s programming, special events and much more. Call 631-265-6768 or email [email protected] for more information.
The cold, rain and even COVID were no match for the Smithtown Historical Society’s annual Heritage Country Christmas. Despite changes due to the pandemic, local families still had a chance to welcome the festive season on the society’s grounds.
Every year the historical society hosts its holiday festival that includes tours of its historic homes, live music, carolers, costumed volunteers, crafts, a shadow puppet show in the Frank Brush Barn, raffles and more.
In the past, attendees were able to visit at any time and stay as long as they liked. This year, the historical society sold tickets online and limited the hour-long sessions to 50 guests to help ensure social distancing. Also, all activities were held outdoors.
Originally planned for Dec. 5, the event had to be postponed to Sunday, Dec. 6, due to the rain Saturday. Families found many of the usual activities including caroling, a winter hayride and a visit with Santa Claus. Helping Santa were elves sent over from the Smithtown Center for Performing Arts who invited children to take photos on a stage decorated for the holidays. Visitors also had the chance to enjoy s’mores over the fire, sip cocoa and watch historic cooking.
One guest during the 4 to 5 p.m. timeslot could be heard saying she wanted to thank the historical society for organizing the event because she was looking forward to celebrating the holidays at a community event, even if it meant doing so in the cold.
Priya Kapoor, executive director of the historical society, said in an email Monday that the event was a success. “We saw families enjoying, and kids having fun on the grounds,” she said.
Kapoor said the historical society was grateful for all the volunteers, board members, local elected officials and the Suffolk County Police Department for their help.
“Special thanks to Michael Mucciolo from Smithtown Performing Art Center for helping us decorate our grounds,” she said. “We are grateful to our sponsors for always supporting us, and special thanks to PSEG Long Island for energy-efficient LED lighting.”
This event has been postponed until Sunday, Dec. 6 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. due to inclement weather.
Join the Smithtown Historical Society, 239 E. Main St., Smithtown for their annual Heritage Country Christmas on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 4 to 8 p.m. Enjoy holiday caroling, historic cooking, s’mores, ornament decorating, tree lighting, a winter hayride, and a visit with Santa Claus! Rain date is Dec. 6. $5 for an hour time slot. Tickets are available through Eventbrite. For more information, call 631-265-6768.
By Heidi Sutton
While the doors of the Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts (SPAC) on Main Street remain shuttered, the theater continues its partnership with the Smithtown Historical Society to present the magic of live theater for young audiences. Following in the footsteps of sold-out performances of Moana Jr. in the summer and Spookley the Square Pumpkin in the fall, SPAC now brings the community a socially distant outdoor production of Ken Ludwig’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. The show will run on various Saturdays and Sundays on the grounds of the society through Dec. 24.
It’s Christmas Eve and Uncle Brierly (Evan Donellan) attempts to read his favorite poem, Clement C. Moore’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to the audience. He gets as far as, “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse” only to be interrupted by a mouse who is in fact stirring batter to make cookies for Santa in hopes that he’ll show up this year.
The mouse, named Amos (Jae Hughes), insists that Santa skipped the house the year before, a claim backed up by Emily (Lorelai Mucciolo), Brierly’s niece and Amos’ best friend. An elf named Calliope (Gabrielle Arroyo) suddenly appears and confirms that Santa’s naughty-or-nice list went missing last year and other families suffered the same fate.
With only a few hours left until Christmas Day, Calliope, Emily and a very reluctant Amos set off on a plane to the North Pole on a quest to prevent this from happening again and to save Christmas.
When they arrive at Santa’s workshop, they overhear a former elf, Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Donellan), tell his sidekick Mulch (Anthony Panarello), how he sold the children’s Christmas wish list to retailers last year and plans to do it again this year. What follows is a madcap rush to retrieve this year’s list with a surprise appearance from Amos’s brother from Kansas (the incredible Hughes in a dual role), a hysterical case of mistaken identity, an exciting sword fight, an elf cheer, a visit from Santa Claus (Panarello) and a hilarious chase scene around the stage to the Benny Hill theme song.
Will Emily, Amos and Calliope succeed in their quest? Will all the boys and girls receive presents this year? Was it all a dream? With the underlying holiday message that the best Christmas presents don’t come in packages and to make life an adventure, this show is truly a joyful tribute to the holiday season!
The Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts presents Ken Ludwig’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas in the open air outdoor performance space behind the Smithtown Historical Society’s Roseneath Cottage, 239 Middle Country Rd., Smithtown on Dec. 12, 13, 19, 20 and 24 at 11 a.m. Running time is one hour with no intermission. Masks are required. Tickets are $18 per person.
For an additional $7 per family (5 person maximum), guests are invited to stay after the show for a distanced photo opportunity with a live Santa followed by photo opportunities at other locations on the property with Santa’s elves, field of snowmen, lighted Christmas tree, etc., all outside and safely distanced, from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Bring your own camera.
To order tickets for either event, please visit www.smithtownpac.org.
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