My Christmas spirit sense starts tingling early and often here in Charlottesville. Way before Carter Mountain Orchard serves its first apple cider donut, I’m half-deranged with holiday anticipation, eager to push past the trick-or-treating munchkins on the Lawn and the dry forkfuls of Thanksgiving dinner, just to get to the good stuff:
- running the Downtown Mall dressed like Santa Claus.
- snuggling into Lost Saint, the subterranean speakeasy, for a frothy winter Flip.
- wassailing ’round the fire at Potter’s Craft Cider.
- wiping away a Tiny Tim tear at the Shakespeare Theater’s A Christmas Carol.
- and enduring Sherry Taylor playing “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” for the 1,000th time on 95.1 because I know if I hang on long enough she’ll play Stevie Wonder’s “Someday at Christmas,” and all will be right with the world.
Call me Buddy the Elf (I do resemble a menopausal Will Ferrell), but I can’t help loving this time of year, with its weird, wonderful traditions and discoveries. Somehow they help me make sense of an upside-down world, as if I’m watching glitter settle slowly on a peaceful snow globe scene.
This particularly dark December I needed to find light—strong enough to pull me from the pallor of my laptop, and bright enough to reveal hope for humanity.
That’s how my beleaguered husband (you try living with Buddy the Elf) found himself driving us, on a chilly Thursday evening, down Route 151 to check out a fancy winery light display, and a not-so-fancy winery homage to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
What
Veritas Illuminated light display at Veritas Vineyard & Winery, and a boozy pop-up Christmas Vacation experience at Flying Fox Vineyard & Winery (Veritas’ hip, younger sibling).
Why
To find twilight against the mountains, twinkling in the trees, and an irreverent cup of Cousin Eddie cheer.
How it went
A bedazzling, hilarious combination of comfort and joy.
Veritas Illuminated was like a fizzy, festive cocktail of an experience, warmed by the sunset glow over the mountains and the crackling fire inside the tasting room.
Flying Fox Christmas Vacation was like an eggnog chaser served in a plastic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer mug—creamy and sweet, with a ticklish kick.
In 20 years we’d never been to Veritas, and I was surprised by its natural beauty and charm. I’d expected something more country clubby, where we’d feel underdressed and out of place. But we felt comfortable goofing off right away, snapping selfies under the lit-up gazebo and within the giant, holiday-wrapped photo frame near the patio.
Stepping inside the tasting room, however, we were momentarily struck dumb by the picture-perfect holiday scene: what looked like the cast of White Christmas sipping wine before the massive stone fireplace; a towering evergreen, merrily bedecked; friendly staff serving hot chocolate and mulled wine; and breathtaking views of the purpled mountains in the darkening night. We feasted on stew and a fried chicken biscuit, then headed out on the half-mile walking path through the illuminated woods.
Ah, the lights! Traipsing through the sparkling grove felt like traveling through the seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest, past the Sea of Twirly-swirly Gumdrops—and also a bit like wandering through the woods in Narnia with Lucy and Aslan: magical, exhilarating, and full of sweet surprises.
When we’d had our fill of outdoor wonder, we stopped by Flying Fox for the yang to Veritas’ yin. What a hoot. A holiday “Schitt’s Creek” motel vibe on the outside, and Cousin Eddie’s powder-blue leisure suit vibe on the inside. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation plays on an old-school TV as you enter. Multi-colored tinsel and ticky-tacky taxidermy grace the ceiling and walls, and you can nurse your eggnog on the groovy sofa near the life-sized plastic manger scene.
Somewhere between the Veritas glow and the Griswoldian splendor, I realized I’d found the imperfect but hopeful humanity I’d sought, what Yeats called “the uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.”
So don’t be a cotton-headed ninny muggins this holiday season: go find joy in the light.
Veritas Illuminated
https://veritaswines.com/veritas-illuminated