Holiday Tea Musicale at Caramoor
The Delight of the Holiday Tea Musicale at Caramoor
If you are a fan of Downton Abbey then a visit to Caramoor during the holidays for the Afternoon Holiday Tea Musicale is a genteel way to celebrate the season. It is fun to indulge in an English Afternoon tea with fluffy scones, jams, cakes, and delicate finger sandwiches at Caramoor, a splendid Renaissance-inspired estate in nearby New York. One of the best times of year to visit Caramoor is during the holidays when the house is brimming with festive decorations set amid beautiful period furniture, art treasures, paintings, and a mélange of attractive appointments. A highlight of the Afternoon Tea at Caramoor is the holiday concert in the elegant music room that will make you feel like you have stepped back in time.
About Caramoor
Caramoor is the legacy of Lucie and Walter Rosen. They purchased this gorgeous property in 1928 with the intention of building a Venetian-style mansion as a summer home. Due to the Great Depression, the Rosen’s put away their original plan and worked from 1929 to 1939 to transform the farm buildings on the property into a home. They filled this home with art and decorative treasures and sometimes complete rooms from Italian palaces and important manor houses that they acquired on their European travels.
The Rosen House at Caramoor is unique in America because it has fifteen complete period rooms from Europe and was left as the Rosen’s lived in it. The collection includes Renaissance paintings, Asian sculptures, jade pieces, tapestries, and European furniture, just to name a few of the treasures that adorn this mansion.
Caramoor was built to showcase Rosen’s love of the decorative arts and to highlight their love of music; both were accomplished musicians. Walter Rosen was an accomplished pianist and his wife, Lucy was an expert on the Thereminist, one of the first electronic instruments invented in the 1920s. Lucy became so accomplished that she traveled the world playing this instrument.
When sitting in the acoustically perfect music room at Caramoor, remember that many famous friends of the Rosens performed here including conductor Leonard Bernstein, pianist Artur Rubinstein, Harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, and violinist Zino Francescatti. When the Rosen’s only son, Walter Jr. was killed in WWII, they decided to preserve their estate and musical heritage for future generations to enjoy.
Holiday Tea @ Caramoor
The visit to Caramoor begins with a Yuletide-inspired concert and holiday carols, many of which are British in origin in the Renaissance-style music room. Afterward, visitors take a guided tour of fifteen gloriously appointed period rooms that are architecturally stunning and worth a visit in any season. During the holidays all the rooms are festooned for the season.
After the tour, guests are treated to an Afternoon Holiday Tea. Each table is covered in a fine brocade tablecloth and has a three-tier curate stand of savory finger sandwiches, sweets, scones, jam, and butter. In keeping with the Afternoon Tea tradition, the wait staff always pours the first cup of tea in elegant china teacups for each guest. Prior to pouring, the guest is asked if they prefer milk and sugar, one lump or two. As the tea is poured you will find yourself imagining the many Afternoon Tea parties hosted at Downton Abbey!
A Day Trip to Caramoor is the perfect outing to get into the holiday spirit and to experience the pleasures of yesteryear at an authentic Afternoon Holiday Tea in a beautiful European-inspired home that is close to home!