Experience the Christmas season in the 1880s with Victorian Village by Candlelight from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton. Tickets for this event are $15 per person and are now available at the Country Store. Tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold on the day of the event.

The evening is limited to 125 visitors with 25 people in each of five groups for the Victorian Village tours. Groups will meet at the Country Store to leave on the Museum train every 30 minutes beginning at 5:30 p.m., with the last group leaving the train station at 7:30 p.m.

Guests will learn about two of the Victorian traditions that have become a part of the legend of Santa Claus during this spectacular lantern-lit event. Visitors will get a taste of the community’s celebratory spirit as they stop in for a Christmas Eve visit in a Victorian-era village in South Georgia back when electricity was a luxury, humble gifts were made by hand, and Christmas Eve was spent cooking delicious treats on the open hearth of the fireplace.

Guests will ride on train cars pulled by the 1917 Vulcan steam engine into the glowing Historic Village lit with lanterns and kerosene lamps. The first stop on the hour-long village tour will be the Clyatt Cabin, where Father Christmas and Old Befana will greet guests with a folktale.

As guests follow the lantern lit path they will enjoy a trip into the past and how two Wiregrass Georgia families celebrate the holiday season. The Tift House will depict the Christmas of an affluent family. The Tifton Choral Society will be on the porch of the Tift House singing traditional 19th century carols for visitors. At the Knight Cabin, guests can see what a typical Christmas might have been like for a sharecropper and his family.

A stop at the Drug Store will follow, where Farmhouse Beef Stew and cornbread will be available for visitors before heading to the bonfire where they will enjoy hot apple cider. The train will then depart to take visitors back to the Country Store. All visitors will receive a keepsake ornament hand-forged by the village blacksmith and a guidebook to remember the evening.

Other holiday events at the Museum include Wiregrass Christmas on Dec. 13 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and the North Pole Express on Dec. 18-19 from 5-8 p.m.

The Museum, Historic Village, and Gallery will be closed for the holiday season from Dec. 22-Jan. 2.

For the month of January, hours of operation will change and admission to the sites will be reduced. The Museum and Gallery will be open Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Reduced admission is $4 for adults, seniors, and children 5-16 years of age and free for children under five.

On Saturdays in January, the Museum, Gallery, Historic Village, and the Vulcan Steam Train will be open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults; $8 for seniors (ages 55 and over); $5 for children 5-16 years of age; and free for children four and under. The Country Store will be open for shopping Tuesday-Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Regular admission will begin again in February. General admission to the Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village on Tuesday-Friday is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors (age 55 and over), $4 for children 5-16 years of age, and free for children four and under. Saturday admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (age 55 and over), $5 for children 5-16 years of age, and free for children four and under.   

 For more information, call (229) 391-5205 or visit www.abac.edu/museum.