2021 Holidays in Washington

It’s always fun to spend the holidays in Washington (DC) since there’s so much going on and the city looks so magical. Though this year was a little different with the pandemic – it feels like we are half open and half closed up right now. Restaurants, concerts, and theater are still happening but DC is the epicenter of the Omicron variant in the US. In the latter part of December, we had a lot of shows cancelled or moved to online only and many restaurants are closing temporarily because their staff are infected and cases are rising dramatically. It’s also been unseasonably warm, a little damper on the Christmas spirit in my opinion, but we are expecting our first snow tomorrow so that is exciting. I still don’t understand how people in warm climates ever feel like it’s Christmas at all!

With this backdrop, we decided to stay in the city over Christmas and New Year’s instead of traveling to our beloved St. George Island in Southern Maryland. In spite of our own reluctance to get out, along with a few cancelled events, we still had time to celebrate the season and enjoy our own city break.

Washington is a great theater town – we have a lot of good local independent theater, heavy-hitters like the Kennedy Center and National Theater, and we get all the Broadway touring shows here. Rarely though do we originate Broadway-bound theater and it just happens that we have two exciting shows taking place right now. A Strange Loop is currently playing at the intimate Wooly Mammoth Theater through January 9th and I had the opportunity to see it in late November. A hilarious and at times very intense show, it’s a hard-to-describe play within a play about a young, gay, black theater writer and his experiences (good and bad) in dealing with his family, his inner demons, and the world at large. Our other Broadway bound show is Once Upon A One More Time which is surprisingly playing at the classic Shakespeare Theater Company, also through January 9th. Once Upon A One More Time is a very clever take on fairy tale princesses (think Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, etc.) and their lives. The princesses discover the classic feminist book, The Feminine Mystique, and begin to fight back against their story lines as written in each of their fairy tales. This transformation is amusingly set to the songs of Brittany Spears. There is a little editing needed but I think this will be a big success on Broadway, very smart and entertaining. Unfortunately, we missed the Kennedy Center’s Ain’t Too Proud – The Life And Times Of The Temptations due to a covid-related cancellation of 15 shows.

The DC region hosts many holiday related concerts and other special events with one of the most well-known being the National Christmas Tree and Menorah at The President’s Park across from the White House. We did not have the opportunity to visit those this year but were able to enjoy a Christmas concert by The King’s Singers at the National Cathedral. I am always in awe when I visit the Cathedral, one of the largest in the world, and its size and significance and history really help me feel grounded in my place on this earth. We usually enjoy our Christmas Eve services here but unfortunately they were moved to virtual only again this year. The King’s Singers concert seemed to finally put me into the holiday spirit with a fantastic mix of classic hymns and holiday songs as well as modern carols.

Washington is overflowing with monuments and museums and we love to use this time between Christmas and New Year’s Day to revisit them and even still discover new things. It’s hard to believe we’ve lived here for 20 years and we are fascinated to see how things continue to evolve. Our holiday museum visits included an exhibit dedicated to the future at the 2nd oldest building in the Smithsonian complex – the Arts and Industries Building. FUTURES, on exhibit through July 6th, encompasses how people in the past thought about the future, current innovation, and possibilities as we enter the next decades and centuries. It was very thought provoking to see morse code machines compared to plant-based meat alternatives and personal hovercraft transportation vehicles. The Arts and Industries Building was a great location for this exhibit, the grounding of these innovative ideas in the historic (and still in need of renovation) structure really gave one a sense of space and time.

One of my favorite activities this holiday season was a short visit to Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens. This is a classic case of ignoring things that are right under your nose because Hillwood is about 5 minutes from my house. I’ve been many times but wanted to see the holiday decorations and the jazz-age exhibit on which they were based. Hillwood is the estate and former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Cereal fortune. She also owned the Palm Beach home Mar-a-Lago, now owned by a famous former US President. The museum contains an exhaustive Russian art collection, classical French decorative art from the 18th century, and expansive gardens. Unlike many home museums, you get to see a little of the “downstairs” which is a real favorite of mine – the behind-the-scenes 1950’s pantry and kitchen are incredible. I really enjoyed being reminded of the beauty of this space and loved seeing it gussied up for Christmas.

Lastly on the museum and monument circuit was a short trip to the new Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial located in a little space off of Independence Avenue SW. Like many of the newer memorials, this one is light and airy and open with a very park-like feel to it. It does have the requisite statues and quotations etched in stone but also has a very unique metal screen which separates the Department of Education from the park. This screen, somewhat controversial in the Frank Gehry-designed memorial timeline, contains an abstract “tapestry” of France’s Normandy coastline, representing Eisenhower’s war and peacetime contributions to history. A moving spot indeed.

Along with all of these events and visits came a few drinks and meals at local restaurants. With Covid rearing its head again, we did not do as much of that as we have in the past. Nonetheless, we had great drinks and meals at The Smith and Le Chat Noir. We were also reminded how much we love the great classic Jaleo by the inspiring chef Jose Andres. We are lucky to live in an area he has been so dedicated to and the spot is always very lively and fun. And they have excellent gin and tonics! We enjoyed many of our favorite tapas on New Year’s Eve there.

Cheers to a safe and healthy 2022 filled with loads of adventure and good times!