Yankee Magazine November December 2025

CONTENTS

features

62 /// Peak Holidays

Amid cozy towns dressed in sparkling snow, discover the spirit of the season in New Hampshire’s fabled White Mountains. By Meg Lukens Noonan

76 /// Conversations: Jacques Pépin

At 90, this living culinary legend reflects on his greatest achievements, his friendship with Julia Child, and that time he turned the White House down....

By Amy Traverso

80 /// The 2025 Yankee Food Awards

Whether dazzling diners or making the tastiest of treats, these culinary standouts represent the best of what’s new in New England. By Amy Traverso

90 /// Deep Impact

In the increasingly important world of deep-sea exploration, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s little research submersible, Alvin, has long played an outsize role. By Michael Wejchert

Discover the best of New England in Foxborough, Plainville, and Wrentham — just 30 miles from Boston and 20 miles from Providence. Whether you’re cheering at Gillette Stadium, testing your luck at Plainridge Park Casino, or finding deals at Wrentham Village Premium Outlets, there’s always something more to explore. And that’s just the beginning. Hike scenic trails, browse charming boutiques, enjoy farm-fresh dining, or unwind in cozy local inns. From outdoor adventures to indoor escapes, FPW invites you to linger, laugh, and make the most of every moment. Your getaway is closer than you think. VisitFPW.com Visit FPW. Stay a Little Longer...Play a Little More!

home

29 /// Wrap It Up

Mixing craftsmanship and creativity from across the region, this curated collection of New England gift ideas is all set to take a sparkly bow. By

Katrina Farmer and Jenn Johnson

38 /// Smart Cookies

Ready to get baking? These five little stunners will give you the sweetest of all seasons. By Amy Traverso and Sarah Hearn Morrison

46 /// Weekends in the Kitchen

Toast the holidays with festive nonalcoholic drinks inspired by our TV show, Weekends with Yankee. By

Amy Traverso

A one-year-long Yankee column about rural living grew into more than a decade of storytelling. Now, writing the closing lines doesn’t come easy. By Ben Hewitt

48 /// Weekend Away

Presenting a user’s guide to cornering the Christmas spirit in and around Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By Courtney Hollands

56 /// Setting the Stage

From plays to dance to music, there’s plenty of holiday appeal to be found across New England at venues big and small. By Bill Scheller

Set sail on America’s newest fleet of small ships and experience the Southeast’s most iconic ports. From the historic streets of Charleston to the sunsets of Key West, American Cruise Lines offers 4 unique itineraries ranging from 9 to 16 days. Explore the Southeast with the leader in small ship cruising.

Publisher Brook Holmberg

EDITORIAL

Senior Managing Editor Jenn Johnson

Executive Editor Ian Aldrich

Senior Food Editor Amy Traverso

Senior Digital Editor Aimee Tucker

Travel/Branded Content Editor Kim Knox Beckius

Associate Editor Katrina Farmer

Contributing Editors Ben Hewitt, Courtney Hollands, Rowan Jacobsen, Nina MacLaughlin, Bill Scheller, Julia Shipley, Kate Whouley

Editor at Large Mel Allen

ART

Art Director Katharine Van Itallie

Senior Photo Editor Heather Marcus

Contributing Photographers Adam DeTour, Megan Haley, Corey Hendrickson, Michael Piazza, Greta Rybus

PRODUCTION

Production & Distribution Director David Ziarnowski

Production Manager Brian Johnson

Senior Production Artists Jennifer Freeman, Rachel Kipka

DIGITAL

Vice President, Digital & Production Paul Belliveau Jr.

Senior Web Designer Amy O’Brien

E-commerce Director Alan Henning

Digital Manager Holly Sanderson

Digital Marketing Specialist Jessica Garcia

Email Marketing Manager Eric Bailey

Customer Retention Marketer Kalibb Vaillancourt

E-commerce Merchandiser Specialist Nicole Melanson

ADVERTISING

Vice President, Media Sales & Marketing Judson D. Hale Jr.

Media Account Managers Kelly Moores, Dean DeLuca , Steven Hall

Canada Account Manager Cynthia Fleming

Senior Production Coordinator Janet Selle

For advertising rates and information, email jdh@yankeepub.com or go to newengland.com/adinfo.

MARKETING

Marketing Director Kate Hathaway Weeks

Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Valerie Lithgow

Marketing Assistant Natalia Rivera

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Roslan & Associates Public Relations LLC

YANKEE PUBLISHING INC.

ESTABLISHED 1935 | AN EMPLOYEE-OWNED COMPANY

President Jamie Trowbridge

Vice Presidents Paul Belliveau Jr., Ernesto Burden,

Judson D. Hale Jr., Brook Holmberg, Jennie Meister, Sherin Pierce

Editor Emeritus Judson D. Hale Sr.

CORPORATE STAFF

Vice President, Finance & Administration Jennie Meister

Human Resources Manager Beth Parenteau

Information Manager Gail Bleakley

Assistant Controller Nancy Pfuntner

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Executive Assistant Christine Tourgee

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Andrew Clurman, Renee Jordan, Joel Toner,

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NEWSSTAND

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Hosts Amy Traverso, Richard Wiese

Directors of Photography

Corey Hendrickson, Jan Maliszewski

Editor Travis Marshall

Executive Producer Laurie Donnelly

Senior Producer Mercedes Velgot

Associate Producer Nora Kirrane

LIVING

 DIY Cranberry Wreath

Fresh cranberries and a few basic tools are all you need to create a festive holiday wreath—we’ll show you how. newengland.com/wreath

TRAVEL

 24 Best Holiday Shopping Towns in New England

From the coast to the mountains, in communities big and small, find unique gifts for everyone on your list at these merry New England shopping towns. newengland.com/holidaytowns

FOOD

5 Common Thanksgiving Menu Problems, Solved Undercooked turkey? Gluey mashed potatoes? Not to worry: Senior food editor Amy Traverso offers practical solutions for the most common holiday hiccups. newengland.com/turkeySOS

 Easy Side Dishes

Discover a delicious roundup of simpleto-make sides—from classic standbys to creative twists—to elevate your Thanksgiving dinner or any family feast. newengland.com/easysides

BOOKMARK IT!

Want more of New England in the palm of your hand? Visit our website for new content each week, follow us on social media @yankeemagazine, and subscribe to our daily newsletter, New England Today. newengland.com/newsletter

Worth the Wait

ack in mid-childhood, when Christmas was still magic, my sister and I would lie on our backs under the tree, shoulder to shoulder, our heads pressed against the tree stand, and look up through the glowing tiers of branches above us. The effect was instantaneous: our Connecticut living room replaced by a pine-scented canopy. I held my breath; Santa would soon be here. The anticipation was so delicious I wanted to stop time.

I still sometimes lie down under my tree and look up through the branches—and I still find the anticipation of Christmas to be the best part. Happily, as Yankee ’s senior food editor, I get to extend the season by working on this holiday food issue a full five months before I hang my first ornament. Just when the Hallmark Channel is airing its “Christmas in July” movie lineup, I’m in the kitchen working on glazed lemony shortbreads and peppermint chocolate chip cookies [p. 38]. And it might be hot outside, but I’m stirring up cranberry-rosemary-lime spritzes (out of season, but perfectly refreshing) [p. 46].

CONTRIBUTORS

MICHAEL WEJCHERT

As I write this letter, someone is hanging the first full-color layouts for the November/December issue on the wall outside my office. It’s a collage of seasonal cheer: holiday lights [p. 22], Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer [p. 26], pretty mountain towns dressed in snow [p. 62].

Then there’s all the delicious goings-on in the Yankee Food Awards [p. 80], our celebration of New England’s best new chefs, restaurants, and artisan treats.

But it’s not all tinsel and mistletoe around here. Enjoy my interview with chef Jacques Pépin about his extraordinary journey from Charles de Gaulle’s kitchen to an all-star multi-city 90th birthday tribute [p. 76].

Read Susan Hand Shetterly’s delightful essay [p. 14] on rescuing abandoned chickens in the dark winter woods. Savor Ben Hewitt’s poignant “Life in the Kingdom” farewell column [p. 120]. Your heart will grow three sizes. —Amy Traverso, senior food editor

PS: Don’t miss the Weekends with Yankee marathon starting December 12 on Create TV. Check your local listings and tune in to see our all-time favorite episodes!

COURTNEY HOLLANDS

create images that feel both natural and nostalgic.”

A lifelong devotee of exploration history, Wejchert was still a kid when he first read about the submersible Alvin. But researching the sub’s six-decade career for Yankee [“Deep Impact,” p. 90], he says, “has made me appreciate how important the lineage of hardworking humans—engineers, pilots, scientists—is for this one-of-akind machine.”

Admitting she can’t resist offbeat Christmas ornaments, Hollands says her husband had to hold her back from buying a wildhaired felted Jerry Garcia one during their trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts [“Weekend Away,” p. 48]. “He’s right—we’re out of room on the tree,” jokes Hollands, whose nearly twodecade career as an editor and writer spans such publications as Boston magazine and Culture.

Even before the leaves in New England had begun to turn, this Massachusettsbased photographer had a full helping of the holidays, shooting our gift guide [p. 29], cookie feature [p. 38], and award-winning artisan foods [p. 88]. “It definitely jumpstarts me thinking about what I might give people this year,” he says.

What You Really Want

An evening. Yes, an evening with white linen tablecloths, waiters with bow ties, waiters that know the food and cooking times and tenderness. The sommelier who pours the wine and spent two years in France studying grapes and vineyards and can answer all aspects of the wine you have chosen. Your dinner partner, who dines here several times a year, was surprised when he turned a fork over and saw that it was stamped “Sterling Silver” with English hallmarks. You were surprised that he didn’t know because he’s always so thorough. After dinner and dessert he takes you on a walk through the garden where you have another glass of wine and mingle with the guests.

This ring is called The Goddess. It’s a rare pink Maine tourmaline found a half-century ago, seventyfive miles north of Portland, Maine in America’s largest find of gem tourmaline. These pink gems exist today only because Cross bought them all years ago. Yes, we acted like crazy people, buying because we know gem finds don’t last forever. We show seventy-five rare pink Maine tourmaline on our website. All one-of-a-kind pieces. No tariffs ever.

Discovery Emails Yes!

Nobody wants email. Ours is better, so good you’ll never want to let it go.

A Sound at Evening

Out in the wild winter woods, something was calling to be cared for.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BY

LORI SIEBERT

here I live, on Maine’s Down East coast, my neighbors and I expect to hear coyotes caroling at midnight, the yip of a red fox, the territorial shout of a raven by day, and hooting from the resident pair of barred owls by day or by night. What I heard one evening as I walked from the bay to my house, as the dark started to gather in the branches of the softwoods, was unusual.

The sound was a soft clucking, like that of a barnyard chicken. I stopped to listen. Again, that slightly querulous cluck. It came from the parking lot that people use when hiking the wooded trails in the nature preserve. I walked in and, through the scrim of young firs, watched a handful of chickens and their rooster move back into the trees in preparation, it seemed, for settling in for the night. Only 10 days before

Thanksgiving, the air already felt like snow. What were chickens doing in this cold, in this place?

I was stunned. Obviously, someone had dumped them here. And then I realized I had heard the same sound days or maybe even weeks before and dismissed it at the time as impossible. An aural fantasy. Chickens in these woods? They wouldn’t last a day. But they had.

In truth, the chickens may have been here for a month or more. I ran up my driveway, grabbed a container of sunflower seeds, and rushed back to scatter them as close as I could to the flock. But the rooster, a handsome bird, was already stationed high in a fir overlooking the bank of a nearby stream, and the hens were perched close together along a fallen white pine only a few feet off the ground. It was past feeding time.

As their outlines faded from view, I stood listening in the dark as they quieted. Then I walked home and called a neighbor who lives about a mile away—a potter, a keeper of chickens, someone who has the easy capacity for being caring and patient around animals, domestic and wild.

“I’ll be there in half an hour,” he said. “Wear a headlamp,” he added. I waited on the shoulder of the road, headlamp off, wary of entering the parking lot for fear my footsteps

on the gravel would alarm the flock. It’s been years since I had chickens of my own.

In such a darkness, with no stars above, I thought about the thousands of years of domestication of so many species of wild lives, and how we’ve depended on them to make our lives good: food, clothing, travel, protection, mousing in our homes and granaries and barns—on and on.

We’ve drained the wildness out of our domestic species and substituted, instead, our care. This is a bond, woven deeply into the years of keeping animals for the attributes we value. It assumes, implicitly, that we provide for them. Oddly, we might say we’ve begun to domesticate ourselves toward more respectful behaviors that are not only mindful of the lives of other species, but also honor the best instincts of our own.

When my neighbor arrived in his truck with his ladder, we turned on

our headlamps and walked to the fallen tree where the hens had bedded down. He handed me one bird after another. I wrapped each loosely in a towel so she wouldn’t flap, carried her back to the truck, opened the tailgate, and set her down. The birds made soft sounds in my arms as I carried them, as if this was the sort of rescue that they understood.

Then my neighbor lifted the ladder and set it against the fir where the rooster was clamped to a top branch. He climbed up and tried to grab the bird around the wings, but the ladder slipped sideways and he fell into the brush. Again he set the ladder and climbed up, this time catching the rooster by his legs. The ladder fell but my neighbor held on, emerging with a pissed-off rooster, both of them ruffled, neither hurt.

Twenty days later, the first snow had fallen and melted back, and the frog ponds were frozen, and I was walking up from the bay again when I spotted a black chicken standing by the parking lot on the side of the road. What was this? She must have been right there with the others, and we had missed her in the dark. All by herself now—a miracle chicken.

I called my neighbor and sat on the shoulder of the road, waiting for him to arrive, offering the bird sunflower seeds, which she accepted, but she wouldn’t let me close. I wanted to be sure he could find her.

It was getting dark when he arrived and calmly tracked her into the woods. When she seemed ready to perch, he reached out and took her and brought her home.

He and his wife kept her and the three buff-colored birds. The two other hens and the rooster live on a small farm not too far away. Occasionally, I stop in to see the ones at my neighbor’s place. They are healthy and beautiful. If I need reminding, they remind me how precariously we are balanced between calamity and the gift of safety.

In Maine, winter invites quiet re ection. Snowshoes at sunrise, the hush of hidden glades and the so crackle of a warming re. Out here, the silence speaks—forging a deep-rooted connection to nature, to one another and even to ourselves.

Maine. Forged by Nature

Winter in Maine feels like stepping into a snow globe: hushed, glimmering and alive with wonder. It’s a season that carves away distraction, leaving only what ma ers: beauty, stillness, and connection. Take in fragrant balsam fir, pine trees draped in snow and icy coastlines gli ering under pale sunlight. Explore mountain towns warmed by roaring fireplaces and charming woodstoves. Here, time seems to move di erently. It eases, stretches out, inviting you to savor every frosty breath and moment of quiet beauty.

Winter inspires adventure and comfort in equal measure. Skiers carve down

Maine’s powdery slopes, snowshoers trek across snow-drenched trails and families glide across frozen ponds. Within candlelit inns and bustling restaurants, Maine’s chefs turn hearty local ingredients into seasonal splendor: creamy clam chowder, roast game with wild cranberries and iconic Maine lobster served with warming sides. Toast the season with winter ales, barrelaged spirits and hot cocktails infused with maple or spruce tips.

Maine’s dramatic winter beauty sets the scene. But the story? It’s all yours to create.

winter, the way it should be

Snow crunches beneath sturdy winter boots. The air is sharp and clean, scented with pine and the dri of woodsmoke. In Maine, distractions fade away and what remains is a rare escape from life’s constant rush.

Bundle up and begin your day watching the sunrise turn snowy peaks blush-pink, or take a sleigh ride through quiet forests, bells jingling in the crisp air. Glide down ski slopes, snowshoe to frozen waterfalls or shush along snow-packed Nordic trails leading to sweeping vistas.

In storybook towns, streets twinkle with festive holiday lights, and shop windows brim with hand-knit sweaters, artisanal jewelry and coastal-inspired art. Step into an art gallery, general store or independent bookstore, and you’ll find community, cra and a neighborly welcome that heartens like a warm embrace. As evening ushers in, Maine’s towns are set aglow. Se le into a cozy tavern or candle-lit farm-to-table restaurant for rich lobster bisque, brothy fisherman’s stew or savory Tourtière—an Acadian spiced-meat pie.

WHERE TO GO

Maine’s regions take on a new glow in winter, o ering unforge able ways to experience the season.

AROOSTOOK COUNTY

Wide-open snowfields and 2,300 miles of groomed and mapped snowmobile trails make Maine’s northern expanses a haven for exhilarating exploration. Speed across stark snowscapes, then experience community suppers and jovial winter carnivals that carry on generations-old traditions.

THE MAINE HIGHLANDS

Snowshoe through lush forests and keep an eye out for white-tailed deer, red fox and ru ed grouse along the way. Accompany a Registered Maine Guide for a day of ice fishing on Moosehead Lake, known for its trout. Katahdin looms large, o ering some of the most breathtaking winter scenery in New England.

MAINE LAKES AND MOUNTAINS

This is ski country—home to Sugarloaf, Sunday River, and dozens of family-friendly slopes. O the trails, find frozen lakes do ed with ice fishing shacks or embark on a horse-drawn sleigh ride across quiet farmlands.

MIDCOAST & ISLANDS

Winter so ens the coast, leaving harbors hushed and timeless. Explore the shoplined thoroughfares of coastal towns like Rockland, Camden and Brunswick, where art galleries, historical house-museums and artist studios beckon.

GREATER PORTLAND & CASCO BAY

Maine’s culinary capital shines in winter. Indulge in cra cocktails, artisanal chocolates and farm-and sea-to-table feasts that celebrate locally harvested ingredients from land and sea. Museums, theaters and galleries o er warmth and endless inspiration indoors.

THE MAINE BEACHES

Solitude reigns here, with windswept sands and dramatic surf. Visit antique shops, maritime museums or cozy cafes tucked into historic towns. Winter birding along the coastal marshes reveals a di erent kind of migration spectacle.

THE KENNEBEC VALLEY

Snowshoe riverfront trails, explore frozen waterfalls, or join in winter festivals that fill the region with music, food and cheer. Historical mill towns along the Kennebec River—Gardiner, Augusta, Waterville and Skowhegan—bustle with modern-day eateries, arts and culture.

DOWNEAST & ACADIA

Acadia National Park is a quiet wonderland in winter, its trails perfect for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Nearby, the Down East Sunrise Trail stretches 96 miles through blueberry barrens, forests and coastal vistas, o ering a playground for snowmobiling, skiing, snowshoeing and winter hiking.

Time to Shine

Vermont’s Shelburne Museum lends an artful glow to the holiday season.

BY JUSTIN SHATWELL

our first glimpse of the light show is a deceptive one. From behind the row of buildings that obscures the view from the highway a warm light rises, sketching the roof lines against the night sky. The antique covered bridge that sits at the edge of Shelburne Museum’s campus in Shelburne, Vermont, has been traced in elegant white strands. It’s a simple and classic display, and it’s completely misleading. There is nothing else so understated or traditional in the spectacle that awaits you.

There’s no telling what will greet you as you push through the entrance gates, since the museum’s Winter Lights event is overhauled every year. Once, visitors emerged into a forest of trees made entirely of lights. Another year the lawn was like a field of radiant flowers, with long strands crisscrossing the ground, each bulb rising into the air like the head of a tulip. Here a swath of blue, there a ribbon of red. The view was dazzling from the ground, but from above it took on greater meaning: The lights formed the pattern of a quilt that might be found in the museum’s collection.

When Shelburne Museum first produced Winter Lights five years ago, organizers were determined to create more than just a pretty holiday display. They wanted the festival to say something about what Shelburne Museum is; they wanted to translate their collection into light. This task falls largely to Kory Rogers, the museum’s senior curator of American art, who works for months with a professional lighting company to plan the event. The assignment would be difficult at any museum, but capturing the essence of this particular collection takes a special kind of creativity because, frankly, the museum is hard to describe.

Shelburne Museum is built upon the personal collection

of Electra Havemeyer Webb, a Gilded Age heiress to a sugar empire who passed her days accumulating treasures, much like Isabella Stewart Gardner in Boston. But where Gardner scoured Europe to build her trove, Webb stayed close to home, scooping up the works of American artists and craftsmen.

“She was a bizarre collector who latched onto anything that struck an emotional chord with her,” Rogers says. Beyond fine art, she bought barns, carriages, and a city jail. She acquired a blacksmith shop, a lighthouse, and a carousel. She filled her galleries with glassware, paintings, circus posters, and mechanical puppets. She boasted some of the world’s largest collections of trivets as well as mustache cups, drinkware with a built-in guard to separate one’s facial hair from the beverage within. (One

such cup inscribed “Mother” raises more questions than answers.)

“[Webb] just had this sense of playfulness to her, which isn’t something you’d expect from a New York socialite,” says Rogers. “You never get bored with this collection.”

Winter Lights echoes the whimsical energy of the museum’s founder. The event is eclectic, exuberant, and sometimes surreal. Everywhere you look there are lights: They line the paths and hang down from the trees like glittering webs. The formal gardens that dot the campus are transformed into fairylike scenes, with each shrub and flower bed glowing brightly in the early winter chill. Joyous holiday music streams from speakers at one location only to be replaced a short distance down the trail by the ethereal tones of a live solo harpist.

Near one corner of the museum grounds, carnival music pipes from the carousel. Red and green lights reflect off the varnished eyes of the wooden horses. Strands of lights draped from a pole create a life-size circus tent, with re-creations of animals and acrobats frolicking under the big top.

Every year, the centerpiece of the show is the Ticonderoga , a 220-foot landlocked steamboat that is also the museum’s largest artifact. Time and again, Rogers breathes new life into the ship by returning it to the water. Thousands of blue and white lights fill the lawn around the Ticonderoga like a radiant Lake Champlain. The

effect is never done the same way twice. One year, the lights extended from the ship in concentric rings, like currents breaking against the bow. Another time, the lights were laid out in grand, impressionistic swirls, making it look as though the ship were sailing through the sky of van Gogh’s Starry Night.

This year, Rogers is experimenting with attaching lights to the ship itself, using magnets to capture the energy of waves crashing against the hull. It’s just one more way the museum pushes the envelope every year. “You can’t do this kind of thing halfheartedly,” Rogers says. “You have to commit.”

There’s only one display Rogers leaves alone each year: the one for a log hunting cabin sitting in a small grove. “Every year people tell us not to touch it,” he says. “So we don’t.”

It’s not hard to understand why. The cabin isn’t far from other, bigger attractions, but the copse of trees provides a sense of seclusion. Gentle music emanates from hidden speakers as laser projections etch flakes onto the branches and then float them gracefully to the ground. After the grandeur of the rest of the show, it’s a perfect place to slow down and end your evening, lost in a peaceful snow shower of immaculate light.

Winter Lights at Shelburne Museum runs 11/21–1/4. For pricing, dates, and times, go to shelburnemuseum.org.

MORE BRIGHT SPOTS

n Gardens Aglow at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens: 11/15–1/3; Boothbay, ME; mainegardens.org

n Holiday Lights Spectacular at Roger Williams Park Zoo: 11/28–1/2; Providence, RI; rwpzoo.org

n Bright Nights at Forest Park: 11/26–1/4; Springfield, MA; brightnights.org

To see our roundup of holiday light displays across New England, go to: newengland.com/sparkleseason

North of Portland and south of Bar Harbor, Maine’s MidCoast region is a vibrant and stunningly beautiful natural destination dotted with charming villages for dining, shopping, and exploring. Experience our worldclass museums, enjoy our theaters, stroll our beaches, visit our vineyards, and hike our rocky coast. Find travel ideas for families, foodies, adventurers, history buffs, and even relaxation seekers at MainesMidCoast.com.

Flier Ed.

Dartmouth’s surprising history lesson on the most famous reindeer of all.

igh above the central reading room of Dartmouth College’s Rauner Library in Hanover, New Hampshire, a little Christmas spirit is in the air year-round. There, inside the fourth story of the glass tower

that same year, leaving him to raise their young daughter, May persevered in creating his tale of a young reindeer who comes to Santa’s rescue on a foggy Christmas Eve thanks to his brightly shining nose—the same oddity that had caused him to be ostracized by the

lection, a life-size papier-mâché statue of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer appears—like a jumper in an amusement park carousel—ready for takeoff. The statue was a gift to Dartmouth from the family of Robert May, a graduate from the college’s class of 1926. A bit of magic surrounds May’s own story. In 1939, Chicago’s Montgomery Ward department store asked May, one of its advertising copywriters, to create a promotion to replace its annual Christmastime giveaway of seasonal coloring books. Despite losing his wife to cancer

Shoppers flocked to Montgomery Ward stores to get a free copy of the illustrated 32-page booklet. By 1947, the year that Montgomery Ward released the story’s copyright back to May, more than 5 million copies of the booklet were in circulation. Two years after that, May worked with his brotherin-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, on a simplified Christmas song version of “Rudolph.” Gene Autry’s recording of it became a smash hit. In 1964, a stop-motion animated film version nar-

Robert May put up this papier-mâché version as a yuletide lawn decoration at his home for more than 25 years.

along with original printings of May’s tale ( RIGHT is preserved at his alma mater, Dartmouth.

rated by Burl Ives cemented the quirky reindeer’s place in Americana.

Along with the statue (which stood for years in the yard of May’s suburban Chicago home), Rauner Library houses early drafts, mock-ups, and original printings of the 1939 softcover, along with all manner of Rudolph promotions, toys, and merchandise in its Robert L. May collection—a reindeer for everyone who could use a little lift this season. —Jim Collins

Be it on foot or via a literary sojourn, these nonfiction narratives transport their readers to historic places and spaces & they also delve into the background of historic happenings. The photographic images (taken by author Katherine Dimancescu) seen here illustrate themes presented in one or both of the narratives: First Church of Boston (Massachusetts), which celebrated the 396th anniversary of its founding in July 2025; this was a drum on display at headquarters of The Ancient & Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (members of the public are welcome to visit The Company’s headquarters in Faneuil Hall, Boston, MA & there is an associated small museum onsite too. The Company’s predecessor is The Honourable Artillery Company in London, which dates back to 1537). This statue of Lion Gardiner is in Fort Saybrook Monument Park in Old Saybrook, CT; Smith’s Castle is a late 17th century First Period dwelling that is now a house museum open to the public as are its grounds in North Kingstown, RI; its visitors learn about Native American & colonial American history including King Philip’s War, which began 350 years ago this year (2025). Another site one may visit to learn about colonial era warfare in southern New England is Fort Griswold State Park in Groton, CT where this plaque is situated. Both of these historical nonfiction narratives discuss First Period houses, some of which were & are contemporaries of the First Period Parson Capen House in Topsfield, MA (pictured here).

Monhegan’s Ocean is Magic

I went to Monhegan 40 years ago for the first time. It was shrouded in fog. I walked down to Christmas Cove and sat on the rocks. The fog began to burn off. I heard voices and saw nothing. Then a gaff-rigged sailboat emerged out of the fog. I grabbed my Nikon. I had three pictures left on the roll. Took those three and scrambled to reload as the boat drew closer.

I reloaded. I took another 36 pictures as the boat was 50 yards off the shore and coming about. I have loved everything about Monhegan Island ever since. The island sits by itself 10 miles out to sea and I have seen every shade of ocean blue imaginable. - RHP

Wrap It Up

Throughout 30-plus years of studying and practicing the art of blown glass, Jen Violette of Wilmington, Vermont, has always enjoyed the seasonal change of pace that ornament making provides. A balance of simplicity and sophistication, Violette’s creations show hints of her early Italian glass training and come in a rich variety of colors and textures, turning any tree into a fir-scented mini art gallery. Prices vary (shown: $28 each); jenviolette.com

Mixing craftsmanship and creativity from across the region, this curated collection of New England gift ideas is ready to take a sparkly bow.

BY KATRINA FARMER AND JENN JOHNSON PHOTOS

coastal spirit

Bask in summer on the New England shore, all year round.

1

If ever there was a way to carry the coast with you, this is it. Made of old sailcloth and outfitted with hemp rope handles, Sea Bags ’ Wavy Seas medium tote is fashionable and durable. Each bag is handcrafted on the working waterfront in Portland, Maine. $175; seabags.com

2

Boston-based artist Jill Rosenwald ’s pottery features ever-classic colors and signature patterns that stand out in any setting. Plus, each piece is made to order (and customizable). The Gloucester Swoosh oval tray is an invitation to let any worries and cares wash away. Available in four sizes, $240-$520; jillrosenwald.com

3

Cleanse yourself with the sea. Atlantic Soap Co. founder Caroline Laye collects maris aqua from the ocean near Woods Hole, Massachusetts, as the base of her fragrant soaps. With sculpted edges and swirled patterns, it’s like the waves are in the palm of your hand. $11-$32; atlanticsoapco.com

SCAN TO START SHOPPING!

The Yankee “Y” logo in this gift guide means that the featured product—or other great gifts from that same maker—can also be found in our online store, store.newengland.com.

4

Two sisters and a cousin, with happiness manager Alfie the dog at their side, head up E. Frances Paper, based in Newport, Rhode Island. Their playful spirit shines in the whimsical illustrations adorning their products. Drop a Little Notes card into a loved one’s pocket, bag, or lunchbox for a “surprise hello”; the walletsize cards are also ideal as gift tags or at place settings. $14; efrancespaper.com

5

“Candle wax … on the hardwood floor,” sings Taylor Swift in “New Year’s Day”; if only she had chosen Seawicks Candle Company tins instead. Hand-poured in small batches in Richmond, Maine, these delightful 100-percent-soy candles are clean-burning and perfect for anyone longing for “the scent of the coast.” $16; seawicks.com

6

Native Rhode Islander

David Norton loves to sail. He cleverly uses marine-grade line, the same as a boat’s running rigging, for his Lemon & Line jewelry, handcrafted in Newport. Celebrate all things nautical with this limited-edition Nantucket Hydrangea design, featuring a custom diamond-pattern braid (woven in New England). $38; lemonandline.com

7 Maine was a major center for the American sardine industry for over a century, but the nation’s last cannery, in Prospect Harbor, closed in 2010. Honor that history with Hearth and Harrow ’s screen-printed organic sardines tea towel, proudly made in Rockport, Maine. Four color options, $20 each; hearthandharrow.com

modern heirlooms

Timeless craftsmanship yields presents that keep giving for years to come.

1 Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley made his name by pioneering the photography of individual snow crystals. Danforth Pewter made its name by reviving a family legacy in pewtering that goes back to colonial America. Be dazzled by the melding of these two Vermont icons with the annual Snowflake Bentley ornament, made in Middlebury by master metalworkers now celebrating their firm’s golden anniversary. $29.95; danforthpewter.com

2

In the world of fine spirits, just a small tasting can help connoisseurs discover a new lifelong love. The same is true of the recently debuted Windham Tasting Glass by Simon Pearce of Quechee, Vermont—a petite expression of glassblowing artistry that will leave you wanting more. $75; simonpearce.com

3

Art and craft meet in JK Adams ’s collaboration with Laura Zindel, as the Dorset, Vermont–based wood-products brand provides a fitting canvas for the Brattleboro artist’s natureinspired designs. As with all JK Adams’s wares, the results are suited to be passed down through generations. Shown: Laura Zindel Cherry Round Serving Tray, $239; jkadams.com

4 To read the founding story of Gallit Cavendish’s Loveline Baskets on her website

(and you should) is to understand the deeply personal reason the Bowdoinham, Maine, resident began her career in handcraft. But her creations—especially the one-of-a-kind baskets sewn from durable, hand-dyed cotton rope and fitted with wooden lids crafted by her husband, Chris—also speak for themselves. Like the artist who made them, they are a testament to both the beauty that life offers and the resilience it requires. $120$380 (shown: Hibiscus basket, $360); loveline-baskets.com

5

Scads of design trends have come and gone in the 104 years that Steele Canvas has been in business. One that’s stuck around: midcentury modern, whose iconic sleekness is paired with heavy-duty canvas and cold-rolled steel in the Wilmington, Massachusetts, company’s Butterfly Sling Chair. $479.95; steelecanvas.com

6 In Bridgeport, Connecticut, a former textile mill building is now powered by the creative spirit of artist tenants including Denyse Schmidt , a nationally recognized figure in modern quilt design since the late 1990s. Marrying time-honored techniques with bold patterns, her handmade-toorder quilts are art for everyday living. Prices vary by size and pattern (shown: “4 Crosses” in queen size, $4,000); dsquilts.com

greenideas

1 Kristen Mara of Lebanon, Connecticut, decreases the need for mined materials and adds a unique flair to her jewelry by using certified recycled metals. Her sterling silver and bronze Beltane link necklace will develop a distinct patina the more it is worn. $178; kristenmara.com

2 Far from any five-star restaurant, in New Vineyard, Maine, salt and pepper mills are shaped for chefs and home cooks alike. Each Fletchers’ Mill product is made of locally harvested wood, while any scraps or sawdust become pellet fuel— eco-care that’s worth a star rating. $58; fletchersmill.com

3 Remember the Bernie Sanders mittens that became a meme? Made and gifted to Sanders by teacher Jen Ellis, they are now handcrafted for all by the Vermont Mitten Co. in Shelburne. The cozy, one-of-a-kind mittens are cut from old wool sweaters and lined with fleece—just like Bernie’s. $50; vermontteddybear.com

4 Massachusetts-based Long Wharf Supply Co. makes clothing from a blend of discarded oyster shells, recycled water bottles, and wool or cotton. Keep shells out of the landfill and help reseed oyster beds, which naturally filter water, with an Edgartown SeaWell Hat. $48; longwharfsupply.com

5 Sustainability guides Spencer Peterman of Gill, Massachusetts, who crafts his spalted maple wood bowls as functional works of art from downed trees that have “a story to tell,” found on walks in the woods. $105-$810; spencerpeterman.com

6

Add some color to the life of someone you love with an Old Hancock Glassworks suncatcher. Using old bottles from the local transfer station, Chris Salmon melts the glass at his Antrim, New Hampshire, studio and hand-presses a plethora of designs in a variety of hues. When the light streams through one of his creations, it glows in contrast to the winter’s cold. $12.95; store.newengland.com

stocking stuffers

1 Here’s a stuffer with staying power: Despite the honest-togoodness lifetime guarantee it has offered since launching in 2004, wool sock maker Darn Tough of Northfield, Vermont, reportedly sees less than 1 percent in returns. Shown: Bear Town Hiking Socks, $25; darntough.com

2 A book lover’s wardrobe speaks volumes when perked up with bandanas from Heading Prints of Portland, Maine, featuring designs adapted from vintage literary illustrations. $18 each; headingprints.com

3 With their recyclable tin and cardboard containers, these unisex skin soothers from MacKenzie’s in Atkinson, New Hampshire (Fisherman Hand Salve, $12.95), and Ursa Major in Waterbury, Vermont (Going Places Lip Balm, $14) go soft on the environment, too. fishermanhandscrub.com (and store. newengland.com); ursamajorvt.com

4

All-ages, old-school fun from a New England heritage brand, and using sustainably sourced material to boot? Game on, says Maple Landmark of Middlebury, Vermont. $31; maplelandmark.com

5 Mix equal parts form and function, add a pinch of artisan flair, et voilà: Beehive Handmade’s pewter measuring spoons, crafted in Warren, Rhode Island. $72; beehivehandmade.com

6

Upscale that stocking with Rough & Tumble’s Flip Wallets, made one at a time in Brunswick, Maine, in nearly 30 colors of sumptuous premium leather. So money. $98 each; roughandtumble.com

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Smart Cookies

Ready to get baking? These five little stunners will give you the sweetest of all seasons.

BY AMY TRAVERSO AND SARAH HEARN MORRISON

his is the best time of year for bakers. Not only do you get to liberally dust yourself in flour and powdered sugar, but you also can share your goods with an adoring audience. We’re all primed to eat something sweet during the shortest (but merriest) days of the year.

The following recipes range in complexity from the supremely easy lemony shortbreads and peppermint chocolate chip cookies to the slightly more involved Dubai chocolate cookies and Christmas tree sugar cookie bars. And then there are the Boston cream whoopie pies, which are a bit of a project—but who can resist two New England icons combined in one sweet treat? Bakers, on your mark, get set, bake!

DUBAI CHOCOLATE THUMBPRINT COOKIES

The phenomenon known as Dubai chocolate originated as a milk chocolate bar filled with a creamy mixture of pistachio and kataifi (shredded filo)— a stunning combo created by FIX Dessert Chocolatier in, you guessed it, Dubai. It went truly viral last year, and the mix of chocolate, pistachio, and kataifi is now showing up in all kinds of desserts, from ice cream to

hot chocolate. These decadent cookies are my contribution to the canon, and they are, admittedly, a little extra. You may need to mail-order the kataifi (pronounced kuh -tay-fee) and pistachio cream, but both are sold in many Middle Eastern markets. And believe me, it’s worth the effort.

FOR THE COOKIES

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1¹⁄ 3 cups (225 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

²⁄ 3 cup (80 grams) granulated sugar, plus more for rolling cookies

2 large eggs, chilled

¾ cup (90 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

FOR THE TOPPING

3 tablespoons kataifi

½ cup pistachio cream

¼ cup chopped toasted salted pistachios

Fill a saucepan with 2 inches of water and set over medium-high heat. When the water is simmering, set a medium heatproof bowl over the pot, but don’t let it touch the water (you can also use a double boiler here). Add the butter and chocolate chips to the bowl. Heat, stirring often, until the butter and

chocolate are just melted and smooth, 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove the bowl from the pan and stir in the sugar. This will bring the temperature of the mixture down. Whisk in the first egg until blended and smooth, then repeat with the second. Add half the flour and stir gently with a spatula until no flour is visible, then repeat with the remaining flour and the salt. Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap pressed to the surface of the dough and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F and set two racks in the center of the oven, with some space in between. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Fill a cereal bowl about halfway with granulated sugar. Using a soup spoon, scoop out enough dough to roll into a ball about 1½ inches wide. Roll each ball in the sugar to coat. Arrange the balls on the baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Use your thumb, the handle of a large wooden spoon, or a cork to make an

indentation in each cookie (see photo on p. 40).

Set each cookie sheet on a different oven rack and bake until the edges are set, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove the sheets from the oven and push down the puffed indentations. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Meanwhile, make the filling: Stir the kataifi into the pistachio cream. When the cookies are warm but not hot, spoon a heaping teaspoon of the filling into the indentation of each cookie, using a clean, wet finger to smooth out any bumps. Top with a sprinkle of chopped pistachio, cool completely, then serve. Yields about 24 cookies.

CANDY CANE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

The only thing that can top a classic chocolate chip cookie (crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside) is a peppermint chocolate chip cookie—nothing goes better with hot chocolate. Note: Chocolate chips come in different bag sizes; any amount in the 10-to-12-ounce range works well. And while you don’t have to refrigerate the dough overnight, it does enhance the flavor and texture.

2¾ cups (330 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

1 cup (120 grams) granulated sugar

½ cup (60 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 bag (10 to 12 ounces) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

¾ cup crushed candy canes (a mix of larger and smaller pieces)

(Continued on p. 99)

Cocktails for All

Toast the holidays with these festive nonalcoholic drinks inspired by our TV show, Weekends with Yankee.

STYLED AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY

LIZ NEILY

I’ve enjoyed some great cocktails over the past 10 years of making Weekends with Yankee. There was the sangria loaded with local berries at a farm dinner at Cape Cod’s Chatham Bars Inn in Season 2, and the Painkiller cocktail made with the house rum and fresh pineapple and orange juices at Maine’s Wiggly Bridge Distillery in Season 4. But like many of us, I’ve found myself drawn to nonalcoholic cocktails lately as another way to jazz up a moment or a meal. During our Season 9 visit to Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm in Warren, New Hampshire, we tasted a peach fizz crafted with their own lavender syrup, peach nectar, seltzer, and nonalcoholic gin. Heaven on a hot summer day.

With that delicious mocktail in mind, I’m sharing two of my own favorite holiday concoctions here. The first is a spritz inspired by classic seasonal flavors: cranberry, rosemary, and ginger. This is an easy batch cocktail, too, since you can make the base a few days ahead of time and add the seltzer just before serving.

The second drink is based on one I had at the late, lamented Arrows Restaurant in Ogunquit, Maine, where my husband and I were married in 2004. In the off-season, the restaurant would host themed dinners; one such meal offered a modern re-creation of an actual menu from the Titanic. That night we were greeted with an “Iceberg” cocktail of champagne crowned with a dome of soft meringue, which inspired my own version: Take a nonalcoholic sparkling

wine, add a dollop of Swiss meringue that takes just 10 minutes to make, and call it a “Snowdrift.” For the “wine,” I highly recommend the sparkling rosé from Vermont-based Töst, which also happens to be a 2025 Yankee Food Award winner [see page 88]. Cheers!

CRANBERRY-ROSEMARY SPRITZ

6 sprigs of rosemary, plus more for garnish

5 quarter-sized slices of fresh ginger (unpeeled)

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

3 cups cranberry juice

¹⁄ 3 cup fresh lime juice

3 cups seltzer water

Ice and fresh cranberries, for garnish

In a pitcher, combine the rosemary sprigs, ginger, and sugar. Use a muddler or wooden spoon to crush a few times, then add the cranberry juice and lime juice and stir until sugar is dissolved. Refrigerate and steep for at least 6 hours and up to 2 days. Strain out the rosemary and ginger, then return to the

pitcher. Just before serving, add the seltzer and ice. Serve each drink garnished with half a rosemary sprig and some cranberries. Yields 6 to 8 servings.

SNOWDRIFT COCKTAIL

2 large egg whites

½ cup (60 grams) granulated sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Pinch kosher salt

48 ounces nonalcoholic sparkling rosé of your choice

Lemon zest curls, for garnish

In a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, lemon juice, and salt until slightly foamy. Set over a medium pot of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Whisk the mixture constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the whites reach 140°F on an instant thermometer, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat immediately and use a handheld or stand mixer to beat the meringue on medium speed until it begins to thicken, then increase speed

FROM AMY’S KITCHEN TO YOURS

Debuting just in time for holiday gifting, In Season: A New England Year in 20 Recipes collects senior food editor Amy Traverso’s favorite dishes and desserts from her popular “In Season” recipe series. Get your copy today at: newengland.com/in-season

to high and continue beating until the meringue is firm but not dry (when you lift the beater from the meringue, it should droop just a bit).

Divide the nonalcoholic sparkling rosé among eight champagne flutes. Spoon or pipe a dollop of the meringue on each, and garnish with lemon zest curls. Yields 8 servings.

Cambridge, MA

A user’s guide to cornering the Christmas spirit in and around Harvard Square.

BY COURTNEY HOLLANDS | PHOTOS BY MICHAEL PIAZZA

OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Chasing away the chill at Imagine; The Charles Hotel’s restful lobby; ceramics by Northampton potter James Guggina at the Harvard Square Holiday Fair; a view into the indie clothing and home goods boutique Cambridge Mercantile.

THIS PAGE: The Harvard Lampoon building, a Harvard Square – area landmark since 1909, shows its merry face for the holidays.

Cambridge is a city of squares, each one vibrant, personalitypacked, and deserving of exploration. But if you’re looking to ring in the holidays, head directly to the Harvard Square area, the epicenter of seasonal merriment as late fall slips into winter. ¶ These festive vibes are due, in part, to how the namesake university’s brick buildings take on an idyllic European feel when snowflakes swirl. “Everything looks perfect,” said Ned Hinkle, creative director of The Brattle Theatre, just a few blocks down from the campus. “It’s how I imagine the experience of Christmas in London might be.”

And Harvard Square’s pealing church bells did inspire the writer and longtime Brattle Street denizen Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to pen his 1864 poem “Christmas Bells”: “I heard the bells on Christmas Day / Their old, familiar carols play / And wild and sweet / The words repeat / Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

But spending a weekend here in midDecember makes clear that the neighborhood’s holly-jolly reputation comes down to its enduring holiday traditions: Midwinter Revels at Sanders Theatre, The Brattle Theatre’s screenings of It’s a Wonderful Life, the Harvard Square Holiday Fair market. These long-standing annual events hold special meaning for generations of families and friends and engender deep community.

That was the same community we encountered on a Saturday at Formaggio Kitchen in nearby Huron Village. No, really: It seemed like half of Cambridge’s 118,000-strong population had descended on the specialty-food store for sprucewrapped Harbison cheese from Jasper Hill Farm, tinned fish, Belgian beer, and panettone galore.

Taken together, Huron Village and Observatory Hill, a pleasant stroll from Cambridge Common, are among the best shopping enclaves in the city—and we took

our time browsing Cambridge Mercantile for hygge -perfect candles and “Ski You Later”–emblazoned sweaters and admiring GrayMist’s funky ornament array (hello, felted Ruth Bader Ginsburg).

Our last stop there was Imagine, a bustling, croissant-focused café from the team behind the venerable Cambridge bakeshop Iggy’s. Patrons jostled for a seat on sheepskin-lined benches near the crackling kivastyle fireplace; my husband and I stood as we sipped our turmeric chai latte and “Higher Being”—a far-out take on a spicy hot chocolate with Loco Love adaptogenic cacao blend, macadamia milk, and cayenne.

Sated, we arrived at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre for the afternoon Midwinter Revels show, “The Selkie Girl and the Seal Woman.” Shoulder-to-shoulder with regulars who tittered at long-serving emcee David Coffin’s inside jokes, we took in the Celtic and Cabo Verdean rhythms and sea chanteys. The story was somewhat meandering, but it didn’t matter: We fell under the Revels’ spell, especially during the group sing-alongs to

IN & AROUND HARVARD SQUARE

EAT & DRINK

Imagine: At this Iggy’sspinoff café in Huron Village, you can go virtuous (lattes infused with collagen, ginger, turmeric, etc.) or decadent (signature buttery croissants in plain, chocolate, almond, or ham-and-cheese varieties). Why choose? Swing both ways and live your best café life. imagine-imagine.com

Lehrhaus: Not only does this kosher tavern dish out unexpected Jewish delights—reubens made with beet “pastrami,” mac and cheese kugel, and gefilte fish taquitos, oh my—it also hosts classes and special events, and members can use the lending library focused on Jewish history and culture. lehr.haus

Pammy’s: Cobia, fig, and yuzu kosho in warm dashi. Striper with skordalia and squash blossoms. Mafaldine pasta with honeycomb tripe and labneh. Culinarily speaking, Pammy’s isn’t your nonna’s trattoria—but the welcome is so warm that you will feel like family. pammyscambridge.com

“Deck the Hall,” “Silent Night,” and “Lord of the Dance.” “It’s joyful theater,” says Revels executive director Diane Kennedy. “It’s that moment of, we’re all in here, and we’re all singing the same thing.”

Even hardened journalists can’t resist a fa-la-la , and we emerged from the historic hall beaming; families, arms linked, literally skipped past us. Considering that there were a few more names to cross off my gift list, we ducked into the Harvard Square Holiday Fairs—billed as “Peace, Love & Holiday Shopping Since 1986”—temporarily occupying an empty storefront on Massachusetts Avenue, near the Harvard Square T stop.

“You see the same faces,” cofounder Leslie Gray told me. “It’s like meeting your old friends.” It’s also like reconnecting with a bygone nuttier, crunchier version of Harvard Square: Importers displayed riotous textiles and jewelry from Africa and India alongside

Wusong Road: Come for the fun, expertly crafted tropical drinks (it’s pretty much impossible to frown while sipping a “1980s Mai Tai”) and stay for the pork belly bao buns and maple pork Peking ravioli. Trust us, a trip to this historic conductor’s building turned tiki bar is always a good time. wusongroad.com

Zuzu’s Petals: In the name of ambience, staffers at this screen-free bar ask patrons to stash phones— all the better to focus on your pals and the splittable desserts. Or don’t share: On Mondays, enjoy all-youcan-eat brownies when you order a glass of wine. zuzuspetalscambridge.com

STAY

The Charles Hotel: Long the spot to stay for Harvard parents and visiting

chatty artisans offering pottery, soaps, and terrariums—all while Steve Winwood warbled about “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” over the speakers. No Mariah “Queen of Christmas” Carey here, by design.

Dinner at Pammy’s capped off a day of shared experiences, especially since we were seated at the glowy dining room’s pièce de résistance, a long communal table. With the nearby fireplace and the oversized centerpieces—earthenware vases overflowing with winter greens, bittersweet, and unexpected pink peonies flanked by candles and giant pine cones—it felt as if we were at a dinner party thrown by a posh but slightly eccentric aunt. At one point, while tucking into my squid ink gnocchi with lobster and furikake, I caught the eye of a stranger-turned-diningcompanion across the table—he nodded as if to say, How magical is this?

My husband and I weren’t ready for the magic to end, so we hit Zuzu’s Petals for something sweet. We practically had to, considering the name of this jewel box of a wine bar comes from a scene in It’s a Wonderful

FROM LEFT: Zurich-style cheese fondue at Zuzu’s Petals, a dining lure in nearby Inman Square; The Charles Hotel’s Christmas tree, which stars in a holiday lighting celebration every year.

Life, in which Jimmy Stewart’s on-screen daughter implores him to fix a crushed flower. (It felt doubly important because we couldn’t fit a screening of the Frank Capra Christmas classic at The Brattle into our jam-packed weekend.) Diners around us who were observing a more European suppertime dipped bread into steamy fondue pots as we shared a crème brûlée.

On our way back to The Charles Hotel, we walked through the gates of a hushed Harvard Yard, gloved hands shoved into pockets while our breath, visible, hung in the air. Thankfully there wasn’t snow in the forecast, as we planned to wake up and participate in one last act of radical holiday community: running with thousands of costumed joggers in Somerville’s annual Bill Rodgers Jingle Bell Run & Walk. It wasn’t yet Christmas day, but bells would be ringing. Longfellow would surely approve.

dignitaries, it’s no surprise that this well-situated hotel specializes in quiet luxury. Beyond the oversized guest rooms done up in Ivy League chic (plaids, Shaker-style furniture), there are all sorts of smart on-site amenities: EV charging, a tricked-out fitness room, and the city’s top jazz club. charleshotel.com

Prentiss House: Walkable to, well, everything, this 20-room modern-but-homey historic inn off Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge’s Baldwin neighborhood boasts an enviable local art collection and convenient self-check-in/check-out. prentisshouse.com

PLAY

The Brattle Theatre: While the annual screening of It’s a Wonderful Life on 35mm film is a must-see, this beloved arthouse theater also shows more offbeat seasonal fare such as Gremlins and Die Hard (totally a Christmas movie, end of discussion). brattlefilm.org

Harvard Art Museums: Rich in important works by Picasso, Degas, Homer, Cézanne, and more, the Harvard Art Museums’ collection can be overwhelming. Break it into several (free) trips or catch a popular Ho Family Student Guide Program tour to see the masterpieces through a student’s eyes. harvardartmuseums.org

Harvard Book Store: If the thoughtful selection and quirky bargain basement don’t convince you this is the Boston area’s best bookstore, maybe the coveted author events will: Literary bright lights Gary Shteyngart, Roxane Gay, and Sloane Crosley have all done recent readings. harvard.com

Midwinter Revels: Since 1971, the stately Sanders Theatre has been home to this annual holiday hootenanny, which blends music from around the globe with holiday sing-alongs and participatory theater. Just try not to dance. revels.org

250 STORIES THAT IGNITED CHANGE

Revolutionary Paths

DISGUISED FOR FREEDOM

In 1782, a 21-year-old in Bellingham Massachusetts made a choice that defied every expectation. With women barred from the army, Deborah Sampson cut her hair, put on men’s clothes, and joined the Continental ranks as Robert Shurtliff. She marched through brutal conditions, fought in fierce battles, and survived a musket ball to the thigh—extracting one bullet herself while leaving another lodged to protect her secret. Illness in 1783 finally exposed her identity, but instead of disgrace, she received an honorable discharge. Remembered as one of the first women to serve in the U.S. military, Sampson remains a bold trailblazer who shattered norms and inspired generations.

SECRETS IN THE HARBOR

Who tossed tea into Boston Harbor that fateful night of 1773? Among them was John Dickman, a young man from Hopkinton, sworn to secrecy. He smuggled arms, fought at Bunker Hill, and helped fortify Dorchester Heights—all while keeping his daring deeds hidden. Not until 1849, when his son-in-law shared his story with a Harvard scholar, was the truth revealed. Nearly 250 years later, Dickman finally claims his place among the 116 known participants, his Hopkinton home and grave now marked in tribute to a hero once lost to history.

THE SOLDIER WHO CHANGED HISTORY

On the smoky slopes of Bunker Hill, a young Black soldier from Framingham steadied his musket and aimed true. Peter Salem, born enslaved in 1750 and emanicipated in order to join the fight for independence as a Mintueman, fired the shot that brought down British Major John Pitcairn—a moment that lifted Patriot morale and became a lasting symbol of resistance. He went on to serve in battles from Lexington and Concord to Saratoga. His defining act is immortalized in John Trumbull’s painting of Bunker Hill at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and his name endures alongside other Black patriots like Salem Poor, Seymour Burr, Titus Coburn, and Crispus Attucks.

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Setting the Stage

From plays to dance to music, holiday joy can be found across New England at venues big and small.

BY BILL SCHELLER

It was once estimated that more than 750 different productions of The Nutcracker are staged annually in the U.S. And looking at New England’s own performing arts calendar, it’s clear you can’t swing a candy cane this time of year without hitting a dancing mouse or two. Like a generationally beloved family recipe, Tchaikovsky’s ballet classic—alongside A Christmas Carol , Holiday Pops concerts, and the like—is a staple of the yuletide spread that’s now being laid

out across our region. Here, we share plenty of places where you can dig into timeless holiday performances—while maybe saving room to sample something new.

VERMONT

FIRST NIGHT NORTH, St. Johnsbury

First Night has had a rocky time of it in Vermont over the past decade, with Burlington’s event ending a 35-year run in 2018. But Catamount Arts keeps the tradition alive in St. Johnsbury, with

a lively First Night North scheduled for New Year’s Eve. Nearly 70 shows will include music genres ranging from Latin to bluegrass to classic rock, along with perennial favorites like Marko the Magician and Fairbanks Planetarium shows. Look for the traditional pancake supper, plus food trucks galore. 12/31; catamountarts.org

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN NUTCRACKER , Barre The Nutcracker has always seemed to take place in a bygone European dreamland, but does it have to? Not necessarily, say the producers of Moving Light Dance Company’s Green Mountains version, set in 1970s Vermont and staged at the Barre Opera House. The story follows a girl named Marie as she and her Nutcracker Prince travel through a snowy realm just as magical as any in old Russia. Sugarplums? Nah—this version features a Maple Sugar Fairy. And a troupe of jolly loggers adds to the local color. 12/20 and 12/21; movinglightdance.com

HOLIDAY POPS, Burlington . It’ll be hard to find a more eclectic menu of yuletide

(Continued on p. 102)

Costa Rica 8-Day Tour

PEAK HOLIDAYS

Discovering the spirit of the season in New Hampshire’s fabled White Mountains.

BY MEG LUKENS NOONAN || PHOTOS BY CAIT BOURGAULT

Fworn folder. My playlists had been leaning more toward moody Bon Iver than merry Burl Ives. My shopping list was alarmingly short on check marks. I needed comfort and joy—and interesting little stores—stat, and I hoped that a quick getaway to northern New Hampshire’s White Mountains region might help me find them. That’s how I came to be sitting in a sleigh with Santa on a frigid Bretton Woods morning, gazing at a chestnut horse’s broad rump through the periscope of my coat’s oversize hood.

I’d considered backing out of the ride with Saint Nick around the grounds of the hilltop Omni Mount Washington Resort & Spa, my stately digs for the night. Clouds and falling snow obscured the Presidential Range, so there would be no majestic mountain views. The temperature had barely climbed out of the single digits. Still, I’d committed. After a few minutes, I pushed the hood back. It wasn’t so bad. Now, I could see the family with two

OPENING SPREAD: Snowfrosted evergreens and balls of mistletoe set the scene at Bretton Woods’ Omni Mount Washington Resort & Spa. First opened in 1902, it’s played host to British royalty and three U.S. presidents, and is known as one of New England’s few remaining “grand hotels.”

OPPOSITE: Kids discover the joy of winter at Jackson’s Nestlenook Farm, a 65-acre Victorian estate turned outdoor recreation park.

THIS PAGE: The 1874

Conway Scenic Railroad station lends a festive splash of color to North Conway’s historic downtown area.

young daughters who had boarded with me, and I could hear the bells on the horses’ leather halters. The grand white hotel with its garlandwrapped columns and red turreted roofs loomed like a winter palace above us.

We tracked across an open field, then turned back and slid along a line of frosted pines. For a moment, the pale sun slipped through a gap in the cloud cover and cast the floaty snowflakes in a shaft of ethereal light. I smelled balsam and woodsmoke. I saw the kids’ smiles. I felt—what was it? Yes, a ripple of genuine good cheer. I’d needed a little Christmas, and already the White Mountains were coming through.

My quest for the festive spirit led me next to the little town of Bethlehem, on the western edge of the White Mountain National Forest. In the post–Civil War years, it gained fame as a clean-air summer retreat catering to wealthy hay fever sufferers. These days, it’s known for its small post office, which gamely processes tens of thousands of in-person and mail-in requests each year for its distinctive holiday postmark, and, increasingly, for the entrepreneurs breathing new life into its Main Street.

I got a latte at the recently opened Place Above the Notch, a cheery café with a persimmon sofa and a royal-blue roasting machine, then walked to a nearby store that was so new it had no sign. Inside, I met Alyssa Schoenfeld, who said she and her husband had been so taken with Bethlehem’s potential during postskiing and -hiking stops at Rek-Lis Brewing Company, one of the evolving town’s early success stories, that they’d bought this 19thcentury retail building and set out to renovate it. After three years of work, they’d just cut the ribbon on Brown Paper Packages, their tightly curated shop specializing in handmade goods from small New England makers. They were also putting the finishing touches on the upstairs apartment where they planned to settle after moving from southern New Hampshire.

“We felt a lack of community where we were living,” Schoenfeld said as she rang up the pretty fabric sleep masks I’d brought to the counter. “People here know each other, and help each other, and care about each other. It’s so special. Sometimes, when I’m standing in my window and looking out at the snow coming down … it really does feel like a Hallmark movie.”

Prop masters for that feel-good film would do well to make their way a few blocks east to

Lonesome Woods, the woodstove-warmed purveyor of new and used cabincore essentials that was my next stop. I saw gift possibilities everywhere in the artfully cluttered two-floor emporium: vintage L.L. Bean ski sweaters, retired Appalachian Mountain Club trail signs, classic Pendleton blankets, retro Paine’s log house incense burners, and, from a line of in-house apothecary goods, hand-poured soy candles in a lovely scent called Snow.

Buoyed by my list-busting finds, I headed over to nearby Super Secret Ice Cream, where owner Kristina Zontini greeted me from behind a shiny blue-and-white tile counter. The air was sweet with the aroma of waffle cones, and a “giving tree” in a corner was hung with donations for the local school lunch program. Zontini told me she’d gotten started by selling scratch-made ice cream to friends out of a self-service backyard shed in 2019. Three years later, she opened this airy scoop shop—a secret no more. Her inventive flavors, house-made mix-ins, and commitment to sourcing ingredients from local growers and dairies had earned her store two James Beard Award nominations, and her decision to stay open year-round— cold weather be damned—had earned her the

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Super Secret Ice Cream owner Kristina Zontini scoops up a seasonal treat (cherry pistachio mascarpone) at her Bethlehem shop; the entrance to the tasting room at Alpine Garden Winery in Bartlett, a family-owned maker of wines and ciders from local fruit; riding the rails into a winter wonderland on the Conway Scenic Railroad; a cozy meal of grilled salmon with acorn squash and warm lentil salad at the Omni Mount Washington’s pub and steakhouse, Stickney’s; a young Conway Scenic Railroad passenger gets some face time with Santa.

Snow-globe moments from Nestlenook Farm include a horse-drawn carriage ride through the woods (OPPOSITE) and a light-bedecked bridge casting its glow over a classic skating pond.

gratitude of her devoted customers.

“I think it’s important for a small town like ours to have vibrant businesses on Main Street,” she said as I sampled Sugar Plum Fairy, a divine concoction of vanilla-cardamom ice cream swirled with chunks of spiced sugar cookies and plum jam made with fruit from her backyard tree. “I didn’t want to bum people out as they drove by.”

If I hadn’t already put my own tree up (I had at least managed to do that), I would have stopped next at The Rocks, a historic estate and nonprofit Christmas tree farm on a trail-veined 1,400-acre forest reserve just west of Bethlehem’s downtown area. Instead, I continued to nearby Littleton, the lively resurrected mill town that has become a shopping and dining hub for visitors on the northern edge of the Whites. I joined the stream of bundled-up pedestrians going in and out of stores and galleries. There was much to admire: upcycled textile mittens in Bella Funk, vintage patterned Pyrex cookware in Just L, and whimsical palm-sized ceramic owls from the League of NH Craftsmen. In the Little Village Toy & Book Shop, I contemplated who might like to receive Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tales of the White Mountains. (Me!)

Eventually, I made my way to Schilling Beer Co.’s Brewery Pub & Kitchen, set in an 18th-century gristmill above the Ammonoosuc, a river that begins high on the western flank of Mount Washington. In the rustic beamedceiling brewpub, I polished off a grilled bratwurst on a pretzel bun, then nursed a crisp Czech-style pilsner brewed at the production facility next door. I was in no hurry. I wanted to savor the conviviality of the stool sitters at the bar, the scent of the wood-fired oven—the glowy gemütlichkeit of it all. It was dark when I finally walked back to my car, past decorated shop windows and fairy-lit trees. By then, I was so awash in goodwill that the sight of the midcentury marquee at Jax Jr. Cinemas made me imagine shouting, George Bailey–style, “Merry Christmas, movie house!”

In the morning, I had coffee by the fieldstone fireplace in the Omni Mount Washington’s Great Hall, the elegant colonnaded lobby that has awed guests since the hotel opened its doors in 1902. The place was already buzzing. A blond toddler in red footie pajamas had gone rogue among the decorated trees, and a woman

I assumed was his grandmother was trying to catch up while fighting a wonky stroller wheel. A couple posed in holiday sweaters under the mantel-topping moose head. Families clomped by in ski boots, ready to catch the shuttle to the nearby Bretton Woods Ski Area, the state’s largest. Hotel staff “elves” zipped in and out of the fancy, gold leaf–trimmed Princess Room (originally the private dining room of Carolyn Stickney, wife of resort founder Joseph Stickney), prepping for visits with Santa later that day.

I could have hung there by the fire and lost myself in the happy bustle, but the next stop on my holiday-spirit revival tour awaited. From Bretton Woods, I drove south through Crawford Notch, a steep-sided mountain pass that shadows the Saco River. “It is indeed a wondrous path,” Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote of the route after venturing through it in 1832, and it was still that: wondrous—and transporting. I found myself thinking back to other times I’d traveled this thrilling wilderness road, on sightseeing trips with my parents, now gone, and ski outings with my daughters, now grown. Seasons came and went, but the memories and the beauty of these mountains were indelible.

:

OPPOSITE: Holiday

icicle

and some hospitable

I passed through Bartlett and turned north onto Route 16, and before long was delivered by a red covered bridge to Jackson, a pocketsize village almost comically brimming with yuletide charm. My home for the night was The Wentworth, a landmark clapboard-andshingle-covered inn, which at the turn of the 20th century had entertained guests with its casino, billiards rooms, and twice-weekly ballroom dances. These days, the big draws are the area’s abundant opportunities for outdoor pursuits. Those, and the recently renovated inn’s polished mountain-lodge aesthetic—think leather sofas, furry throws, soft pillows, a flickering fire—which encourages après-anything lolling.

After dropping my bags, I set out for a walk, cursing the knee injury that kept me from clicking into ski bindings and exploring the Jackson Ski Touring Center’s nearly 100 miles of Nordic trails (including one challenging route that begins at the backside summit of Wildcat Mountain Ski Area). I passed by two sweet red libraries: the “old,” built in 1901, and the “new,” a reassembled 1858 barn. Near the rock bridge that spanned tumbling Wildcat Brook, I came upon White Mountain Puzzles, headquarters for the iconic jigsaw puzzle manufacturer, and its only retail store. As I browsed the colorful racks, second-generation co-owner Colin Wroblewski told me that his small shop had become a place of pilgrimage for puzzle enthusiasts.

“We just had a guy drive up from South Carolina, load his PT Cruiser with 50 puzzles, and turn around to head back,” he said. “Our customers are very loyal.”

That seemed an understatement. But I saw the deep appeal of traveling to the source, especially at Christmastime. Many of the holiday puzzles depicted nostalgic images of enchanting snowy villages much like the one just beyond the shop’s front door. I picked out a 1,000-piece design that was a collage of vintage ski posters, including images of ads for the legendary Boston & Maine “Snow Trains,” which in the early 1930s started bringing city dwellers to nearby North Conway.

And then, a short time later, I was standing in that very depot. The Snow Trains stopped running decades ago, but North Conway’s striking yellow Russian Revival–style station hasn’t changed much since those excited winter sports pioneers shouldered their long wooden skis and trekked across town to Mount Cranmore, the

The northern headquarters of the Forest Society, The Rocks, invites the public to explore its trails, learn about nature, and—starting in late November—find the perfect locally grown, farm-fresh Christmas

1937 Alpine ski area that’s still going strong. The station serves now as both the embarkation point for the Conway Scenic Railroad’s sightseeing excursions, including the popular Santa’s Holiday Express, and an ephemerafilled museum. (The nearby New England Ski Museum has more artifacts from that golden era, such as photos by noted photographer and North Conway regular Slim Aarons.)

I bought stocking stuffers at the North Conway 5 and 10 Cent Store, a downtown fixture since 1939, then headed back to Jackson and ducked into The Wentworth’s snug Alpine tavern, whose walls are papered in green and gold plaid, like a gift. There was—hurray!— cheese fondue on the menu. I settled into a high-backed barstool, feeling all of the warmth of the season, and none of the weight.

In the morning, I started for home. The plows had been through. The roads were good. The surrounding forests of birch and balsam were snow-flocked and still, and the great bulk of mountains stood mighty and white against a cloudless sky. I thought about pulling over to take pictures, but I knew I’d remember these scenes. Besides, I wanted to get back. My daughters would be arriving in a few days. I had cookies to bake and presents to wrap. And when “A Holly Jolly Christmas” came on the radio, I’d turn it up.

Exploring the White Mountains Region

EAT & DRINK

The Place Above the Notch, Bethlehem: Welcoming café and coworking space roasting shade-grown, fair-trade beans weekly. theplaceabovethenotch.com

Rek-Lis Brewing Company, Bethlehem: Relaxed brewpub with 15 craft beers on tap, loaded smashburgers, and a slate of vegetarian options. reklisbrewing.com

Schilling Beer Co., Littleton: Sip outstanding European-style beers in the contemporary tasting room, the adjacent historic pub, or the warming huts in the beer gardens. schillingbeer.com

The Sunrise Shack, Glen: Fuel up for a day in the mountains or shops with robust breakfast bowls in this funky, cheery roadside cabin. sunriseshack.com

Super Secret Ice Cream, Bethlehem: Indecisive types can order a flight of flavors at this innovative, sustainabilityfocused scoop shop, a 2025 James Beard Award finalist. supersecreticecream.com

STAY

Adair Country Inn, Bethlehem: The Christmas Tree Package at this century-old inn on 180 wooded acres includes an outing to nearby historic estate The Rocks to pick out the perfect tree and wreath. adairinn.com

The Inn at Thorn Hill, Jackson: At this luxury retreat just for grown-ups, you can rightsize your stay with a room, suite, or cottage—or the six-bedroom Carriage House for a group getaway. Spa and fine-dining restaurant on-site. innatthornhill.com

Omni Mount Washington Resort & Spa, Bretton Woods: This elegant mountain view outpost offers cross-country skiing, casual and upscale

dining, plus special familyoriented holiday activities every December weekend. omnihotels.com/hotels/ bretton-woods-mountwashington

Villa Hygge, North Conway: Serene Scandinavian design—think blond wood and sheepskin throws—and a Nordic spa set this in-town boutique hotel apart. villahyggehotel.com

The Wentworth, Jackson: If you can pull yourself away from your suite’s countryelegant furnishings and gas fireplace, the romantic 1869 Room restaurant and snug Alpine tavern await. thewentworth.com

North Conway: Opened in 1937, this sunny, south-facing family favorite has 56 trails and a tubing park. cranmore.com

Bretton Woods Ski Area, Bretton Woods: New Hampshire’s largest ski area also has one of the state’s most beautiful summit eateries, the soaring timberand-glass Rosebrook Lodge. brettonwoods.com

Conway Scenic Railroad, North Conway: All aboard for two Christmastime journeys departing from North Conway’s historic station: the family-favorite Santa’s Holiday Express, and the Winter Mountaineer through spectacular Crawford Notch. conwayscenic.com

League of NH Craftsmen, Littleton: One of six galleries statewide run by this nearly 100-year-old nonprofit champion of fine craft. nhcrafts.org

Little Village Toy & Book Shop, Littleton: Classic toys and games, and a highly browsable selection of bestsellers and local-interest books. littlevillagetoy.com

Lonesome Woods, Bethlehem: Mountain-themed antiques, vintage apparel, and more, in a brimming barn-like shop. lonesomewoods.com

Jackson Ski Touring Center, Jackson: Strike out from the village center onto nearly 100 miles of trails for skiers of all abilities, with rentals and lessons available. jacksonxc.org

Nestlenook Farm, Jackson : Come for ice skating (weather permitting) on a magical three-acre Victorian skating park, stay for bonfire s’mores. nestlenookfarmnh.com

New England Ski Museum, North Conway: Showcasing the White Mountains’ extraordinary ski history through art and exhibits. newenglandskimuseum.org

SHOP

Bella Funk, Littleton: Of-themoment women’s apparel and accessories in a landmark 19th-century brick building. bellafunkboutique.com

Brown Paper Packages, Bethlehem: Specializing in goods from small New England makers, plus shippable curated gift boxes. Facebook

Just L , Littleton: Find gifts for retro-loving friends at this purveyor of midcentury modern decor. Facebook

North Conway 5 and 10 Cent Store, North Conway: 1930s general store selling penny candy and souvenirs behind a distinctive boomtown false front. Facebook

The Store & Gallery at WREN, Bethlehem: Showcasing local and regional artists to benefit the Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network. wrenworks.org

White Mountain Puzzles, Jackson: Nostalgia-leaning American-made jigsaw puzzles to help while away the long New England winter. whitemountainpuzzles.com

Zeb’s General Store, North Conway: Crafts, toys, books, New England specialty foods, and the sweet nostalgia of a soda fountain. zebs.com

Jacques Pépin

At 90, this living culinary legend reflects on his greatest achievements, his friendship with Julia Child, and that time he turned the White House down....

BY AMY TRAVERSO

If you were to write the story of Jacques Pépin’s life as a screenplay, it might be easier to believe.

Growing up near France’s culinary capital of Lyon during World War II, his father a Resistance guerrilla fighter, Pépin survived wartime privations and German bombs as his mother scoured the countryside for food. After the war, Pépin began his kitchen apprenticeship at 13, working up through the regimented brigade system at restaurants in and around Lyon and Paris, culminating in a position at the storied Plaza Athénée at age 16. There, he joined the swirl of café society, where Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean Genet were regulars.

Military conscription threatened to take Pépin far from the Parisian high life, to Algeria, but through an acquaintance he miraculously found a spot as chef of the presidential palace, working in the same kitchen where Antonin Carême cooked for Napoleon and serving three presidents, including Charles de Gaulle.

about life before the celebrity-chef era, noting that when he was personal chef to Charles de Gaulle, “the cook in the kitchen was never interviewed by a magazine or radio, and television barely existed. If someone came to the kitchen, it was to complain that something went wrong.”

The good luck and hard work would continue in New York. Cooking for Pierre Franey at Le Pavillon, Pépin met and befriended Craig Claiborne, the legendary New York Times food editor, which led to friendships with James Beard and an up-and-coming cookbook author by the name of Julia Child. All the while, he not only mastered English but also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in French literature at Columbia University.

But mon Dieu, Pépin was just getting started. Approached by Le Pavillon regular Joseph Kennedy to cook for his son at the White House, he instead accepted an offer from another regular named Howard Johnson to improve the offerings at his namesake restaurants. He helped open Windows on the World at the World Trade Center. He wrote books, hosted 13 public television series—some with his friend Julia—and earned 16 James Beard Awards.

Now, nearing his 90th birthday on December 18, he has just released his 35th book, The Art of Jacques P épin: Favorite Recipes and Paintings from My Life in the Kitchen (did I mention that he’s also an accomplished artist?). And he continues to oversee the Jacques Pépin Foundation, which funds free culinary education through community organizations to bring marginalized people back into the workforce.

I caught up with Pépin at his home in Madison, Connecticut—where he’s lived since moving there with his late wife, Gloria, half a century ago—to talk about his extraordinary story. To learn more about this culinary legend, read his memoir The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (yes, he also writes beautifully) or watch my visit with him from Season 3 of Weekends with Yankee —our most popular video on YouTube.

You’ve lived so many different lives. Looking back, is there a time that feels the most significant?

Yes, there are several, but in retrospect, probably when I came to America [in 1959] and eventually

decided to stay. When I came here, I said, “I want to see the country, the jazz, New York, and I’ll stay here two years.” But then I ended up staying and it changed my life.

What was the food culture you encountered when you first arrived? In some ways, it was familiar, because I came here to work at Le Pavillon, which was considered the greatest French restaurant in America.

And the people that I met there, like [chef] Pierre Franey, were all involved in food. Then I met the trinity of American food writers: Craig Claiborne of The New York Times, James Beard, and Julia Child, who I met in 1960. Helen McCully [the influential food editor of House Beautiful] showed me the manuscript of Julia’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She said, “This woman lives in Boston. She’s a big tall woman with a terrible voice. She’s coming in a week. Do you want to cook for her?” It was a good book, so I said, “OK.” And that’s how I met Julia. The food world was very, very small at that time.

And yet this was happening at a time when American food was very industrialized. Were you shocked by some of the food you found here? Yeah, I certainly was surprised.

LEFT: A young Pépin in New York, when he was working as director of research and development for the Howard Johnson’s hotel and restaurant chain.

OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT: Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso cooks with the master himself during the filming of Weekends with Yankee ; Pépin at one of the 90 birthday parties held this year around the country to celebrate his 90th birthday.

A supermarket opened near my apartment—my first supermarket experience. I thought it was a terrific idea. In France, you go to the fish guy, the bread guy, and so forth. Here they were all under the same roof. Except it wasn’t really food. It was all package, package, package. And there was one type of salad—no leeks, no shallots. There was no great wine, no cheese, no great bread. It’s totally different now. Look at our markets. It’s amazing.

You famously turned down the Kennedys when they tried to recruit you to be the head White House chef, and you went to work in culinary development at Howard Johnson’s instead. Why?

Well, again, you look at it in the context of the time. I had worked in Paris. I had been chef to three presidents, and not once was I ever invited into the dining room. You didn’t even think of it. So yes, it was very prestigious to be asked to go to the White House, but I didn’t look at it in that context. Instead, I moved on to Howard Johnson’s, which was a great decision for me. I learned about the chemistry of food, food production, marketing, American eating habits. It was another world altogether. I stayed there 10

years. Then I became director of culinary operations for the World Trade Center. I was a consultant at The Russian Tea Room. I would never have been able to do any of those things with just my training as a French chef.

Meanwhile, you earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree at Columbia. I always had a bit of a complex about not having an education, like most chefs my age in France. When I came here, I knew I had to work on my English, so I signed up for English for Foreign Students at Columbia. And I went on to get a BA in French literature and then I did my master’s thesis on Voltaire.

And then you ended up creating a graduate program in gastronomy at Boston University. How did that come about?

I moved to Connecticut, and someone asked me to give a class at Wesleyan University on the history of food. I had all those notes. Someone from BU audited the class and said, “We’re starting this type of program. Would you be interested?” Meanwhile, each time I went to Boston, I called Julia. We had lunch or dinner together, and I said, “Why don’t you teach

with me?” So, we ended up doing some classes together and created a master’s program in gastronomy. That program still exists now.

You’ve lived in Madison for decades now. What attracted you to the area? I was in a car accident in 1974. I had 12 fractures. I said to my wife, Gloria, “We should move by the water; it’ll be less taxing in the winter.” Madison was between New York and Boston. It had a train station. And being on the water, I loved going from swimming in the morning to fishing and then wild mushrooming here in the woods. We started meeting friends. Now I’m part of a big group of pétanque players. Every summer, we have a pétanque tournament and a sit-down dinner for 50 people.

If you could teach everyone to make one dish, what would that dish be? Soup. I like to make what my wife ended up calling “fridge soup.” I open the refrigerator and maybe there was some salad left over, two carrots, a piece of meat. It’s never the same. And then I finish it with some pasta or rice or potato. It’s very versatile, very economical. And I’m very miserly in the kitchen. I was raised this way during the war, I suppose.

Tell us a bit about the work of the Jacques Pépin Foundation

I am very lucky this way because my son-in-law, Rollie, is a chef, and he’s a professor at Johnson & Wales. He asked me, “Who do you think you would like to teach now?” And I said, maybe people who have been disenfranchised in life: people who come out of jail, or former drug addicts, or homeless people. Because I feel that in six weeks or so, I can teach people to peel potatoes and wash salad and chop onions. And if they like it and are willing to work, maybe five years later, they’re the chef. And you can change your life and be proud of yourself. It’s been quite rewarding.

You turn 90 in December. How are you celebrating?

This was another idea from Rollie. He said, “I’m going to ask 90 chefs all over the country to do a special birthday party to raise money for the foundation.” Chefs like Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud. And people can also throw parties at home to raise money. It’s very rewarding. I’m a lucky guy.

To watch Jacques Pépin’s appearance on Weekends with Yankee , go to newengland.com/pepin.

THE 2025

Whether dazzling diners or making the tastiest of treats, these culinary standouts represent the best of the new in New England food right now.

BY AMY TRAVERSO

It’s been a good couple of years for New England food lovers. Dozens of inventive, wellsourced, fun restaurants have opened, and despite the many challenges now facing restaurateurs, the quality has been high. We’ve also seen artisan food makers opening up new small businesses all over the region, or launching new products. Wherever you are in New England, check out a local farmers’ market or a new café—you will find treasures.

When we first dreamed up our annual Food Awards back in 2013, our goal was to highlight the best of New England–made foods—from artisan cheeses, chocolates, and charcuterie to mail-order lobster roll kits and blueberry muffins—while also giving our readers some fresh ideas for holiday gifting and entertaining. We scoured markets, tasted extensively, and consulted experts … and we’ve continued to do that for every Food Awards since. All the winners we selected are at the top of their class, made locally, and available to everyone (i.e., shipped nationwide).

Last year, we brought chefs and restaurants into the Food Awards fold for the first time. New England has an incredible dining scene, with eateries that attract visitors from around the globe. But most important, we live in a world that’s saturated with opinions. The law of averages means that most crowdsourced-review sites give the same three to four stars to nearly every restaurant. And AI can’t eat. What we have to offer, as editors whose job is to continually track the food scene, is curation—to wade through the many options out there and make recommendations we can stand behind.

And this year, we decided to focus exclusively on the best of the new: restaurants, chefs, and products that have launched (or relaunched) since 2023. Our six states are constantly innovating, and that’s worth celebrating.

BEST NEW RESTAURANT Frankie’s

BURLINGTON, VT

It may be less than two years old, but Frankie’s is a legacy restaurant. Located in the space that once housed the famed Penny Cluse Café, it’s also helmed by Hen of the Wood alums Jordan Ware and Cindi Kozak. So it’s no surprise that a love of Vermont— its farms, its artists, its signature

foods—suffuses the place.

One twist: abundant seafood options, like brothy littleneck clams with pancetta and roasted onions, or the perfectly grilled swordfish with celery beurre blanc and romano beans we tried last summer. As for creemees, they show up not just in the desserts but on the cocktail menu as a base for a clarified milk punch. frankiesvt.com

THE 2025

BEST NEW CHEF

Nikhil Naiker, Nimki PROVIDENCE, RI

This past year, Naiker was a finalist for a James Beard Award in the Emerging Chef category—an extraordinary recognition. Born in Fiji, raised in coastal California, and educated at Johnson & Wales, Naiker combines local ingredients with Indian and Oceanic flavors in a style he calls “New England Tropical.” We love that his restaurant, which started as a popup and is now part of the bar/restaurant known as Courtland Club, offers brightly flavored, imaginative fare at a very reasonable price point (starters under $20; mains under $30). Try the local seafood in coconut curry sauce, any of the crudos, or the spicy fried chicken sandwich with tamarind chutney and cilantrojalapeño slaw. @nimki.pvd

BEST NEW FARM STAND Beetlebung Farm CHILMARK, MA

The 18th-century barn that houses the Beetlebung farm stand was deconstructed in New Hampshire and shipped to Martha’s Vineyard, but it looks like it’s stood there for centuries. Inside, it’s something out of a Nancy Meyers movie: all wicker baskets, stone, and blond wood. But this is a serious regenerative farming operation with a goal to feed the island (farmers and fishermen get a discount). Don’t miss out on the beans, the greens, or the baked goods—especially the wholegrain sourdough, made with grain milled on-site. beetlebungfarm.org

BEST NEW ITALIAN Strega

NEW HAVEN, CT

The Italian equivalent of France’s Michelin Guide is the highly selective Gambero Rosso, which recently awarded this Elm City favorite two out of three forks, or due forchette. The restaurant, which had earlier locations in Milford and Branford, offers an experience that feels very modern-Italian—from the polish of the service to the artfully composed plates, to the 16-peppercorn cacio e pepe and an eggplant Parmesan made with the cannellino flegreo tomato, coveted for its sweetness. streganewhaven.com

BEST NEW FRENCH

The Franklin BRISTOL, RI

BEST NEW BRUNCH

Ocotillo

PORTLAND, ME

Inside this nondescript building on a Bristol side street is a fast ticket to Paris. The hypnotically beautiful room, a pastiche of French style, is all marble-topped surfaces, amber lighting, and gallery walls. The menu is stocked with beautifully rendered Gallic classics like duck confit, pommes puree, and chocolate pot de crème. And it all comes courtesy of David Fierabend—the design guru behind Tiverton’s Groundswell Café and associated garden, kitchen, and home stores— and his culinary team. groundswellguild.com

Sister restaurant to Terlingua, the popular Tex-Mex barbecue spot in Munjoy Hill, Ocotillo brings the same warm vibes and south-of-the-border accent to Portland’s West End. Start with a smoked brisket breakfast taco or the huevos rancheros (red and green chili salsas, eggs over easy, corn tortillas, refried beans). Tuck into buttermilk-masa pancakes with caramelized pineapple syrup and maple butter. And don’t forget to finish with the churros. ocotillo.me >>>

BEST NEW BAKERY

Flag Leaf Bakery

GREENFIELD, NH

Opened in 2022 but resettled into a new, larger location in 2025, this beloved bakery is renowned for its hearty, hearthbaked sourdough loaves, impeccably laminated croissants, pecan pull-apart breads, Christmas stollen, and “cruffins” filled with pastry cream and seasonal fruit. Truly worth making the trip. flagleafbakery.com

BEST NEW VALUE MEAL

Amba Café & Rotisserie CAMBRIDGE, MA

Given the talented team behind this East Cambridge newcomer—chef-restaurateur

Will Gilson and pastry chef Brian Mercury of Puritan & Co., The Lexington, etc.—we knew the food (casual Mediterranean) would be great. What we didn’t expect was what a great deal it would be. The whole rotisserie chicken value meal serves up a crisp-skinned, shawarmaspiced bird with two mezze appetizers, two sauces, two sides, and pita bread, all for $40. Our favorite options: green feta dip, hummus, black garlic tahini sauce, Urfa chili crisp, farro salad, and harissa-glazed carrots. ambacambridge.com

GRANBY, CT

At his bakery/market/farm in northern Connecticut, Tessier isn’t just making fresh glazed crullers, flaky pain au chocolat, or rich layer cakes crowned with buttercream and homegrown blossoms—he’s creating community. Together with husband Christopher Peregrin, Tessier has turned an underutilized corner of a rural horse farm into a destination and gathering place, where customers cozy up to cups of hot cocoa with caramelized marshmallows in winter and gather around the communal garden table in summer. juliensfarmstore.com

BEST NEW COFFEE SHOP Dreamscape Coffee WOODSTOCK, VT

It’s hard to imagine a cozier spot than this village café, which looks a bit like Alice in Wonderland’s library and serves a serious and seriously fun lineup of seasonally inspired drinks. On a late winter day, we loved the Epiphany latte with local honey, caramel, and a dash of cayenne. Also fun: Two of the owners, James and Rachel Williams, are Arizona transplants who source their terrifically smooth coffee beans from FreeForm roasters in Sedona. @dreamscapecoffeeco

BEST NEW ARTISAN FOODS

1. Canned Rosé Sparkling Beverage | Töst DORSET, VT

Blending white tea, elderberry, and ginger, these nonalcoholic sparklers taste sophisticated, celebratory, and just dry enough (and have fewer than half the calories of wine). The brand launched in 2017, but the convenient can format is new this year. Try the rosé in our Snowdrift Cocktail, p. 46. tostbeverages.com

2. Blueberry Jerk Marinade | Backriver Blends

TOPSHAM, ME

Midcoast meets the West Indies in Jordene Trueh’s kitchen, where she combines the layered warmth of classic jerk seasoning (from thyme, ginger, and three kinds of peppers) with wild Maine blueberries. The berries add a fruity high note, as opposed to sweetness, and

the result is a deeply savory and vibrant marinade for grilled or roasted meats or vegetables. We also love a dollop in our chowder. backriverblends.com

3. Mini Jam Set | Lighthouse Keeper’s Pantry

YARMOUTH PORT, MA

4. Salts of the World Chocolate Collection | M. Cacao Chocolates

AMESBURY, MA

SCAN TO START SHOPPING!

The Yankee “Y” logo on this spread means that the featured product can be purchased in our online store, store.newengland.com, which also offers Yankee Food Award winners from recent years and other delicious gift ideas.

After bringing products to market for Martha Stewart and Ree Drummond, Cape Cod native Kelly O’Connell turned her jammaking hobby into a business in 2020; she has since expanded it into 50 sweet and savory products. This jam set includes her most popular flavors (including lemonstrawberry and black fig), all offering a bit of summer sunshine to brighten a winter morning. Next time you’re on the Cape, visit O’Connell’s flagship café—home to the Fluffy Seagull latte, a viral hit made with peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff. lighthousekeeperspantry.com

From the minds of French master pastry chef Delphin Gomes and former robotics engineer Michael Nichols comes an innovative take on the salty sweets phenomenon: a collection of eight or 16 bonbons inspired by countries such as Tibet, Portugal, Peru, and Cyprus. Each bonbon features a signature chocolate ganache (think: port wine–paprika milk chocolate for Portugal) sprinkled with a salt from that country. mcacao.com

5. Withersbrook Blue | Jasper Hill Farm

GREENSBORO, VT

Leave it to the cheese geniuses at Vermont’s much-lauded creamery to improve on an already-excellent creation. A variant of their award-winning Bayley

Hazen Blue recipe, Withersbrook Blue is soaked in Eden Ice Cider (made just up I-91), which gives it the most wonderful sweetness and apple essence. jasperhillfarm.com

6. Organic Wellness Tea Collection | Grace Farms Tea & Coffee

NEW CANAAN, CT

Grace Farms serves many missions as a nature, community, and arts center. Its stunning campus is well worth a visit. The nonprofit has expanded its reach with a line of coffees and teas whose profits are all donated to organizations that fight forced labor worldwide. This new Grace Farms collection of organic tea blends combines ingredients such as turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper (called Breathe) or Earl Grey

crème, reishi, and yaupon (Rise) to taste great and help you feel better. sharegracefarms.com

7. Hooper Cheese | Vermont Creamery

WEBSTERVILLE, VT

Named in honor of cofounder Allison Hooper, this doughnut-shaped, washedrind cheese has a flavor and texture reminiscent of a robiola: richly creamy, buttery, tangy, with a hint of mushroom. Hooper was vital to the creation of the Vermont artisan cheese industry, and this little beauty does her honor. vermontcreamery.com

8. Halva Babka | Navad Bakers

EAST PROVIDENCE, RI

After graduating culinary school at Johnson & Wales, Guy Hanuka began growing his bakery, which specializes in

Jewish breads and pastries like onionpoppy challah, chocolate babka, and his newest creation, in which tender, buttery, pastry is threaded through with sweet sesame paste and dark chocolate. navad.co

9. Cook New England Spice Set | Skordo BRUNSWICK, ME

Here’s the ideal gift for the homesick New Englander: a collection of nine herb and spice blends, from Maple Salmon Rub (granulated maple, garlic, thyme) to Seacoast Spice (mustard, onion, chili powder, coriander—perfect for seafood) to Maine Blueberry Rub (berries, pepper, sumac, rosemary) and North Woods Steak Salt. Order online or visit Skordo’s shops in Portland, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. skordo.com

IMPACT DEEP

In the increasingly important world of deep-sea exploration, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s small submersible, Alvin, has long played an outsize role.

By Michael Wejchert

The deep-diving research vessel Alvin arrives at the seafloor during an expedition to the East Pacific Rise, part of a volcanically active underwater mountain range. In this literal hotbed for researchers, Alvin offers a closeup look at things like oceanic crust formation, plate tectonics, and the creatures who live in this unique deep-sea environment.

IN 2006, 22-YEAR-OLD JILL MCDERMOTT stared out of a porthole of the deepsubmergence vehicle Alvin into a blackness unlike anything she’d ever seen. For over an hour, Alvin had descended into the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Packed into the snub-nosed machine alongside Pat Hickey, manager of the Alvin Group, and Timothy Shank, a deep-sea biologist, McDermott had long since passed the point that sunlight could penetrate the ocean. Now, 8,000 feet underwater, atmospheric pressure pushed on Alvin’s hull almost 250 times more than it does at sea level. McDermott, who had grown up in Madawaska, Maine, a town of roughly 4,000 perched on the Canadian border, was accustomed to quiet. Still, diving in Alvin felt like being in a darker version of outer space.

The cockpit of Alvin was just under seven feet in diameter; alongside the three tiny portholes, monitors and switches and radios ran up the concave walls, taking up every inch of space. Alvin might have felt cramped, but the cavelike dimensions ensured safety—the two-inch-thick titanium sphere that formed the nucleus of the sub had been pressure-tested to depths of more than 14,000 feet. Descending to the ocean floor often took hours, and pilots sometimes buffered the sounds of the ocean pinging into the hull by playing music. But now, as McDermott surveyed the darkness, everything seemed eerily quiet.

Hickey, Shank, and McDermott were heading to a hydrothermal-vent study site located 9 degrees north of the equator on the East Pacific Rise. “9 North” remains one of the most volcanically active vent sites in the world—a place where mineral-rich, heated water is released into an otherwise cold ocean. The biodiverse area had been the site of multiple deep-sea volcanic eruptions in the past few decades, including the first and only one ever observed in real time by humans.

As a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, McDermott had spent time studying the vents to which she was hitching a ride in Alvin, which operates out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. But this was scant preparation for a visit to the ocean floor. Anyone could read about the sites—the same way anyone could read about the moon—but diving to visit them was the deep-sea version of blasting off on an Apollo mission.

Hickey, one of the submersible’s most experienced pilots, adjusted the ballast of the sub, which then slowly sank before coming to rest on the ocean floor. He leaned over and toggled off Alvin ’s lights.

“Um, Pat?” McDermott said, a little nervously.

“Look out there,” Hickey told the young scientist. Taken aback, she stared into the abyss of the midnight zone. “I just wanted you to see how dark it is down here,” Hickey told her, grinning. Then he flicked Alvin ’s lights back on. The ocean seemed to come alive. Deep-sea creatures that had evolved to create their own lights blinked back, and McDermott realized they were interacting with the submersible.

Hickey piloted the craft toward the 9 North vents, familiar ground for Alvin. In 1977, scientists diving off the Galapagos in Alvin had discovered the vents for the first time. Twenty-nine years later, McDermott was visiting them in the same submersible.

McDermott’s initial dive on Alvin would be the first of many trips she would take to the sea floor on the East Pacific Rise. She has devoted her career to further understanding the unique, almost otherworldly chemistry of

(Continued on p. 110)

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Highly trained swimmers are on hand to guide Alvin each time it launches from or returns to its support ship, the RV Atlantis ; Alvin in Eel Pond in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1964, the year it debuted as the nation’s first humanoperated submersible; Alvin pilot Dudley Foster, left, and expedition leader Robert Ballard on a 1986 trip to the RMS Titanic, which marked the first time humans set eyes on the infamous ocean liner since its sinking in 1912.

Come visit us today!

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CANDY HOUSE

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Candies! For over 50 years we have used only the finest ingredients in our candies—cream, butter, honey, and special blends of chocolates. Call for a FREE brochure.

Candies! For over 50 years we have used only the finest ingredients in our candies—cream, butter, honey, and special blends of chocolates. Call for a FREE brochure.

Candies! For over 50 years we have used only the finest ingredients in our candies—cream, butter, honey, and special blends of chocolates. Call for a FREE brochure.

Long famous for quality candies mailed all over the world.

Long famous for quality candies mailed all over the world.

Long famous for quality candies mailed all over the world.

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292 Chelmsford Street • Chelmsford, MA 01824

292 Chelmsford Street • Chelmsford, MA 01824 Call 978-256-4061 for Free Brochure

For Free Brochure Call: 978-256-4061 < >

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292 Chelmsford Street • Chelmsford, MA 01824 For Free Brochure Call: 978-256-4061 < >

“udderly”

The Atlas presents the historical geography of Maine from the last ice age to the modern era with a rich array of maps, paintings, and graphs. Hardcover, 203 pages, 10'' x 14.25'' $85.00 + shipping

The Atlas presents the historical geography of Maine from the last ice age to the modern era with a rich array of maps, paintings, and graphs. Hardcover, 203 pages, 10'' x 14.25'' $85.00 + shipping

Perfect as an everyday carry, sturdy enough to handle your bookstore haul, and roomy enough to stash all of your Yankee back issues. Get yours today at: store.newengland.com

To order: Use QR code or email um.press@maine.edu

To order: Use QR code or email um.press@maine.edu

See all University of Maine Press books at umaine.edu/ umpress/

See all University of Maine Press books at umaine.edu/ umpress/ HISTORICAL

Smart Cookies

(Continued from p. 42)

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking soda and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl, using a handheld or stand mixer, blend the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat to combine. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the flour mixture until evenly combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to pick up any dry bits. Stir in the chocolate chips and the candy cane pieces. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap pressed to the surface of the dough and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

Thirty minutes before baking, take the dough out of the refrigerator. Preheat your oven to 350°F and set two racks in the center of the oven, with some space in between. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared sheets, then bake until lightly browned at the edges, about 10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Let cool on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Yields about 5 dozen cookies.

EASY LEMONY SHORTBREAD COOKIES

I love a pretty glazed cookie, but sometimes I find sugar cookies a bit too sweet for an added glaze of powdered sugar and milk. Shortbread, on the other hand, has just enough salt to achieve a perfect balance. And a little lemon in the dough and in the glaze really makes these pop.

FOR THE SHORTBREAD

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup (120 grams) powdered sugar

2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Zest of 1 small lemon

FOR THE GLAZE

2 cups (240 grams) powdered sugar

3–4 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Food colorings of your choice

Preheat your oven to 350°F and set two racks in the center of the oven, with some space in between. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, using a handheld or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until combined. Add the flour, salt, and lemon zest and stir on low speed just until most of the flour is incorporated (scrape down the sides halfway through). Knead the dough in the bowl a few times to bring it all together, then turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface.

Sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour and roll to an even ⅜-inch thickness. Use round cookie cutters to cut out circles. Transfer to the prepared cookie sheets. Gather and reroll dough as needed.

Bake until the cookies are just golden brown on the sides, 18 to 20 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and the lemon juice. Take ⅓ of this glaze and transfer to a second, smaller bowl. Choose your food colorings, one for each bowl, and add enough to reach your desired hues. (If the mixture seems too thick, add another tablespoon of milk.) Put the icing from the smaller bowl into a pastry bag and cut the tip so you have a very small opening, about 3 millimeters.

Working one at a time, dip the top of a cooled cookie in the larger bowl of glaze, just enough to coat. While the icing is still wet, pipe a series of horizontal stripes across the glaze, then drag a toothpick vertically through the lines in two directions to create a Florentine pattern. (For the finished effect, see photo on p. 42—which also shows a variation using an optional third color of icing.) Repeat with the remaining cookies, arranging them on wire racks to set. Yields about 2 dozen cookies.

BOSTON CREAM WHOOPIE PIES

Part cake, part cookie, this playful twist on the beloved Boston cream pie reimagines a local favorite as another New England classic: the whoopie pie. Light, tender vanilla cakes are filled with silky pastry cream and finished with a glossy pour of chocolate ganache—a rich and unexpected addition to any holiday cookie platter. If it’s your first time making pastry cream, don’t be intimidated: A little patience and steady whisking are all it takes for luscious, homemade results.

FOR THE PASTRY CREAM

1½ cups whole milk

4 egg yolks

½ cup (60 grams) sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons cold salted butter, cubed

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

FOR THE CAKES

2½ cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour

1 cup (120 grams) sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 egg, room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

FOR THE GANACHE

4 ounces (115 grams) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

¼ cup heavy cream

First, make the pastry cream: Fill a large mixing bowl with ice and cold water and set aside.

Add the milk to a medium saucepan and warm over medium heat until just simmering.

While the milk heats, whisk together in a medium bowl the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch (it will seem dry and crumbly at first but keep whisking!) until fluffy and pale yellow. Set aside.

When the milk has reached a gentle simmer, remove from heat and, while constantly whisking, pour half of the milk into the egg mixture in a slow,

steady stream. Add the egg-and-milk mixture back into the saucepan and return to medium heat to cook while continuously whisking. The mixture will be frothy at first but will begin to smooth and thicken. When the first bubbles appear, set a timer and whisk for 1 additional minute. Remove from heat, whisk in the butter and vanilla extract, and immediately pour the pastry cream through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl using a flexible spatula to press the cream through the sieve. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming and place the bowl in the ice bath for 30 minutes. Remove from the ice bath and place the pastry cream in the fridge until completely chilled.

Next, make the cakes: Preheat your oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, egg, and vanilla extract. Add to the dry ingredients, whisking just until smooth.

Use a 1-tablespoon cookie scoop with a release lever to scoop the batter onto the baking sheets, spacing the portions 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating the sheets halfway through, for 6 to 8 minutes or until set and just lightly golden around the edges. Cool on the sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Then, make the ganache: Combine the chocolate and heavy cream in a heatproof bowl and place in a microwave for 20 to 30 seconds. The chocolate should be about 75 percent melted. Remove from the microwave and whisk until smooth and glossy. Set aside to cool slightly.

Remove the pastry cream from the fridge, uncover, and whisk until creamy. Arrange half of the cakes flat side down and spoon a small amount of ganache on the top of each cake, smoothing it with the back of a spoon. Allow several minutes for the chocolate to set. Arrange the remaining cakes flat side up and spread with 1 tablespoon of pastry cream per cake. Top each with the flat side of a ganache-topped cake

to form sandwiches, then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve. Yields 20 whoopie pies.

CHRISTMAS TREE SUGAR COOKIE BARS

Looking for all the holiday joy of sugar cookies without all the fuss? These sugar cookie bars skip the chilling, rolling, and cutting in favor of a press-and-bake approach but still deliver that nostalgic flavor we crave this time of year. Buttery and tender, with hints of vanilla and almond, they’re topped with a creamy “fudge” that balances the richness of white chocolate with the tang of cream cheese. Cut into festive triangles, they’re a cheerful addition to any holiday cookie tray. The secret to their irresistible texture? Slightly underbake them, and measure your flour with care.

FOR THE COOKIES

2¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon (280 grams) all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature

1 cup (120 grams) granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon pure almond extract

FOR THE TOPPING

¾ cup (6 ounces) cream cheese

3 cups (360 grams) powdered sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons (335 grams) white chocolate, finely chopped

Gel food coloring of your choice Sprinkles, for garnish

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan with butter or cooking spray and line with a piece of parchment paper that extends up and over two opposite sides of the pan, creating a sling for lifting out the baked cookie slab once the pan has cooled. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter with granulated sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. Add in the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract and mix until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl halfway through. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined. Spread the dough into the prepared baking dish in an even layer using an offset spatula.

Bake in the oven until puffy and just baked through (be careful not to overbake, as it will continue to cook a bit after being removed from the oven), about 14 to 16 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make the topping: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth, about 4 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl two to three times. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat for an additional 2 minutes until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through.

In a heatproof bowl, melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, add the chocolate. Add the food coloring and beat on medium speed for 2 to 4 minutes until creamy and smooth. Immediately pour the mixture onto the cooled cookie slab and use an offset spatula to spread it in an even layer; garnish with sprinkles. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set.

Using the parchment paper sling, lift out the chilled cookie slab and transfer to a cutting board, placing it so the short side is facing you. Use a large chef’s knife to cut it in half horizontally and then repeat with each half so that you have four equal rectangles.

Starting with the bottom piece, cut the rectangle into six equal triangles plus two edge “scraps.” (Begin by slicing off the end piece—the baker’s snack!—to create the correct angle.)

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days (they also freeze beautifully). Remove from the fridge 30 minutes before serving. Yields 24 bars.

(Continued from p. 56)

chestnuts and less familiar compositions than the program the Vermont Symphony Orchestra has planned at the Flynn. Conductor Andrew Crust will lead the VSO in selections from The Nutcracker, “Sleigh Ride,” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Fantasia on Greensleeves,” plus pieces not as frequently heard, like Kelly-Marie Murphy’s First Nations–inspired “Huron Carol Interlude” and excerpts from “Capriol Suite” by Peter Warlock. There’ll be a sing-along, a “12 Days of Christmas” with a Vermont slant, and, of course, Santa’s arrival. 12/6; flynnvt.org

PETER & WENDY, White River Junction With a pedigree that goes back to J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan and his 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, Northern Stage’s production of Peter & Wendy continues the story of the boy who won’t grow up and the girl he introduces to Neverland. All the famous characters of that magic realm— Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily (“Lily,” in this version), the nefarious Captain Hook— make their appearance in this adaptation of the story, created by former Northern Stage associate artistic director Eric Love. 12/4–1/1; northernstage.org

RANDOLPH SINGERS HOLIDAY CONCERT, Randolph. The acoustically superb concert hall at the Chandler Center for the Arts is the setting for “Sacred and Secular Season,” the annual holiday concert by the Randolph Singers, a community chorus drawing members from throughout central Vermont. Among the program highlights: director Christopher McWilliams’s original arrangement of “Christmas Jingles”; Andy Beck’s “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” which reimagines the Clement Clarke Moore poem in song; Pergolesi’s “Magnificat”; Saint-Saëns’s “Christmas Oratorio”; and selections by Samuel Barber and Howard Goodall. 12/7; chandler-arts.org

SPRUCE PEAK LIGHTS FESTIVAL, Stowe. Tucked between Spruce Peak and Mount Mansfield in the heart of ski country, The Lodge at Spruce Peak (formerly Stowe Mountain Lodge) welcomes the holidays at an all-day event featuring “Holiday Party on Ice” performances by Ice Dance International, a gala Christmas tree lighting and village illumination, a spectacular fireworks show, and complimentary photos with Santa. Too old for Santa? Toast the season at the WhistlePig Pavilion. 12/20; sprucepeak.com

RHODE ISLAND

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MUSICAL , Westerly. Ebenezer Scrooge has humbug driven from his heart in Charles Dickens’s enduring Christmas tale of redemption set in early-Victorian London. Scrooge, the Cratchits, the ghosts, and a raft of colorful characters tell the story in song as A Christmas Carol: The Musical arrives for nearly a monthlong run at the Granite Theatre. The production features original numbers by Broadway veterans Alan Menken (Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast) and Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime and Seussical ). 11/28–12/21; granitetheatre.org

CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE , Providence Cirque Dreams, a global phenomenon affiliated with the famed Cirque du Soleil, comes to the Providence Performing Arts Center with a special holiday-themed extravaganza. The ensemble’s original music and choreography, stunning acrobatics, and vividly elaborate sets and costumes bring storybook characters to life on the big stage in a nearly two-hour show combining the panache of a circus with Christmas warmth and wonder. The four scheduled performances include a Saturday matinee. 12/19–12/21; ppacri.org

THE NUTCRACKER , Providence. The Ocean State’s acclaimed professional classical dance ensemble, Ballet Rhode Island (formerly Festival Ballet Providence), offers its annual performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker at Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The production promises striking visuals, as elaborate costumes and masks bring the Mouse King, the Nutcracker Prince, and the rest of the fanciful cast to life. 12/19–12/28; balletri.org

NEW HAMPSHIRE

CONCORD DANCE ACADEMY HOLIDAY

SPECTACULAR, Concord . Every Christmas season, the colorfully costumed young students at Concord Dance Academy take to the stage at the Concord City Auditorium to show off what they’ve learned, performing a variety of dance styles to a program of holiday songs. All proceeds go to Friends of the City Auditorium and other local charities. 12/6 and 12/7; concorddanceacademy.com

ELF THE MUSICAL , Portsmouth. It took until 2003 for a Christmas movie to look at the Santa story from the elves’ point of view. Elf became a holiday classic, and now it’s a musical. Running at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Elf the Musical tells the story of Buddy, a boy transported to the North Pole and raised by elves (and trained, less than successfully, in toy making). When he discovers he is human, he sets out for New York City and … well, it gets complicated, and funny, and heartwarming. Songs are by Tony nominees Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin. 11/13–12/21; seacoastrep.org

HOLIDAY POPS, Nashua . Guest conductor Damien Geter leads Symphony New Hampshire in a collection of yuletide musical favorites at the Keefe Center for the Arts. A conductor, composer, and accomplished bass-baritone, Geter will bring his talent for lush arrangements and spirited conducting to the century-old, Nashua-based symphony in a program of traditional carols, evergreen orchestral numbers, and sing-alongs, with more than a few surprises along the way. 12/13; symphonynh.org

IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS, Portsmouth. “Blue Skies,” “Happy Holiday,” and other spirit-lifting standards by Irving Berlin will be ringing out from the stage at The Music Hall in December, as this Ogunquit Playhouse production takes up residence in Portsmouth for more than two weeks. Between the

previews, the matinees, and the evening performances, there are ticket options aplenty, making it easy to pair this cultural hit with any downtown holiday shopping and dining plans. 12/3–12/21; themusichall.org

THE MIDWINTER REVELS , Lebanon “Dance, then, wherever you may be….” A half century of holiday revelry draws to a close in 2025, as Revels North presents its final salute to the season at the Lebanon Opera House. This Scottish celebration of the winter solstice features the artistry of celebrated Celtic guitarist Eric McDonald and Orkney Islands fiddler-singer Louise Bichan alongside a professional cast and talented local amateurs. 12/20 and 12/21; revelsnorth.org

MAINE

CHRISTMAS AT THE CASTLE , Freeport Maine Dance Company’s all-new production promises a playful reimagining of The Nutcracker in which the Sugar Plum Fairy leads some favorite fairy-tale friends—such as Ariel, Rapunzel, and a certain Beast-smitten beauty—on a quest to save Christmas. The show’s cast will include both professional dancers and students from the Maine Dance Center school. Performances are at the Freeport Performing Arts Center. 12/20; mainedancecompany.com

MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS, Portland .

The century-old Portland Symphony Orchestra brings its popular Magic of Christmas concert back to Merrill Auditorium for a two-weekend run. Audiences can expect a selection of carols both sacred and secular for orchestra and choir, such as the “Hallelujah” chorus and “Sleigh Ride.” Plus, American Idol alum and local songstress Julia Gagnon will perform as a guest vocalist. Parents, take note: There’s an abbreviated 11 a.m. concert on Sunday, December 14, that’s perfect for kids. 12/12–12/14 and 12/19–12/21; portlandsymphony.org

NEIL MCGARRY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Buxton Few stagings of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol are as unusual and riveting as Neil McGarry’s version, in which he plays every character in the story. McGarry’s one-man show, described by one critic as “astounding and charming,” has been a traveling phenomenon for over a decade; now it arrives at Buxton’s Saco River Theatre for a pair of same-day performances. 12/13; sacorivertheatre.org

RANGELEY COMMUNITY CHORUS

HOLIDAY CONCERT, Rangeley. Sponsored by Rangeley Friends of the Arts, the Rangeley Community Chorus is a rotating ensemble drawn from talented residents of Rangeley and surrounding towns in the Lakes Region. Their single performance at the Church of the Good Shepherd will

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offer a program of secular and sacred holiday songs. Look for the Rangeley Lakes Regional School choir and the Rangeley Ringers handbell choir to join in the fun. 12/13; rangeleyarts.org

MASSACHUSETTS

A CHRISTMAS CAROL , Provincetown

In a highly original take on the Charles Dickens classic, Provincetown Theater presents A Christmas Carol as a play within a play. The adaptation by Doris Baizley features a 1930s vaudeville troupe traveling from one Depression-era community to another. When the motley thespians realize that the actors cast as Scrooge and Tiny Tim have been left behind in the previous town, they adapt as best they can … and, as the old chestnut has it, hilarity ensues. 11/20–12/7; provincetowntheater.org

BOSTON BALLET’S THE NUTCRACKER , Boston . Nothing is arguably more central to Boston’s Christmas cultural scene than Boston Ballet’s take on The Nutcracker, with its story of young Clara and her Nutcracker Prince, who takes her on a fairyland adventure set to Tchaikovsky’s incomparable score. The current production, which debuted in 2012, is a Mikko Nissinen–designed extravaganza featuring more than 240 students from Boston Ballet School accompanying the lead dancers, nearly 200 costumes embroidered with 200,000plus faux jewels, and a Christmas tree that magically “grows” to more than 40 feet tall. 11/28–12/28; bostonballet.org

HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY HOLIDAY CONCERTS, Boston . Founded in 1815, the Handel and Haydn Society presented the American premiere of Handel’s “Messiah” three years later. Since 1854, the famed oratorio has been part of the society’s annual repertory, with this season’s performances scheduled for late November. H+H’s other holiday offering is “Baroque Christmas,” featuring works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Ludwig Bach, and Christoph Graupner. As always, the music will be performed on period instruments. 11/28–11/30 (“Messiah”) and 12/18 and 12/21 (“Baroque Christmas”); handelandhaydn.org

HOLIDAY POPS, Boston . Ever since the days of Arthur Fiedler, the Boston Pops have been a mainstay of holiday celebrations in New England. Composed of musicians drawn from the esteemed Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Pops are led by conductor Keith Lockhart in a traditionsteeped program that’s sure to include

Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” ending with an audience sing-along and Santa’s arrival. 12/4–12/24; bostonpops.org

215TH ARMY BAND HOLIDAY CONCERT, Springfield . The stately Greek Revival architecture and superb acoustics of Springfield Symphony Hall provide the setting for this free cavalcade of seasonal tunes performed by members of the Massachusetts Army National Guard. With selections such as “Bugler’s Holiday” and “Christmas and Sousa Forever,” the buoyantly patriotic program is bound to command attention. 12/7; spiritofspringfield.org/events/holiday-concert

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A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS , Uncasville.

Sixty years after it appeared on television, and more than a decade since it first came to the stage, the story of how Charlie Brown rediscovers the spirit of Christmas arrives at Mohegan Sun Arena. Disillusioned by the whirlwind commercialization of the holidays, Charlie—with the help of his “Peanuts” pals, a bedraggled but beloved Christmas tree, and one very special beagle—

puts on a pageant celebrating the true meaning of the season. 12/12 and 12/13; mohegansun.com

IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS, East Haddam . In 1940, Irving Berlin crafted a tune he called “the best song I ever wrote.” Two years later, Bing Crosby sang “White Christmas” in the film Holiday Inn , and it became a favorite of American soldiers wistful for home and hearth. Crosby reprised the tune in the 1954 movie White Christmas , helping it become the best-selling single ever. The song’s legendary journey took another turn in 2000 with the premiere of a musical rendition of the movie, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas —which this year is the big holiday show at the Goodspeed Opera House. 11/14–12/28; goodspeed.org

PLAYHOUSE HOLIDAY JAMBOREE, Ivoryton For generations, the way to listen to Christmas music was to turn on the radio. With a brand-new production in the style of radio days gone by, Connecticut’s venerable Ivoryton Playhouse serves up favorite carols, along with pop melodies and storytelling, as if the audience were gathered around Philco and RCA parlor sets to hear live broadcasts from venues like

the Grand Ole Opry’s Ryman Auditorium. 11/20–12/21; ivorytonplayhouse.org

STRAIGHT NO CHASER: HOLIDAY ROAD TOUR, Uncasville. Straight No Chaser is a nine-member a cappella group founded at Indiana University in 1996. Now a professional ensemble, they’re known for tight harmonies, clever arrangements, and a high-spirited take on holiday chestnuts like “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Members of the natty nonet—all sharp black suits and hip haircuts—also serve up holiday tunes of their own: “Who Spiked the Eggnog?” “The Christmas Can-Can,” “Text Me Merry Christmas,” and more. In Connecticut, their Holiday Road Tour show takes the stage at Mohegan Sun Arena. 12/6; mohegansun.com

SUGAR PLUM TEA PARTY, New Canaan

The Sugar Plum Fairy steps out of The Nutcracker and into the real world of the New England Academy of Dance for a tea party to delight both children and their grown-up friends and family. There’ll be sweet and savory treats, arts and crafts, party favors for all, and, of course, ballet excerpts performed by the fairy herself and her friends from the Land of Sweets. 12/6 and 12/7; neadance.com

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Deep Impact

(Continued from p. 92)

hydrothermal vents. Now a professor at Lehigh University, she is one of Alvin ’s most frequent users. As remotely operated vehicles become the de facto method for underwater research, it can be hard to justify diving with a human-occupied vessel like Alvin unless you’ve taken the plunge yourself.

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displayed in front of the Redfield Laboratory on Woods Hole’s teeny main street. At first blush, the cluttered, compact, cedar-shingled downtown might seem like an odd place for Alvin to reside when it’s not underwater, but WHOI’s facilities have shouldered the brunt of ocean research for more than nine decades. Without the eccentric cast of scientists, sailors, and engineers who have kept the vehicle operational, Alvin might have ended up a forgotten relic on a scrap heap. But the inverse is no less true: Without Alvin, many of WHOI’s discoveries would still be unchecked spots on the ocean floor, blanks on the map.

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McDermott has experience with both manned and unmanned vehicles. “When I look back on my work with all these different vehicles, I remember my Alvin dives most clearly,” she says. “I think there’s something about how your brain forms memories that grows stronger in Alvin. Scientifically, I can come up with more ideas because I can remember them more vividly.”

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Finding the right fit is everything.

As oceans warm, storms intensify, and scientists grapple to understand the vast swath of ocean that humans have not yet explored, every piece of new information found underwater is a step toward solving an urgent puzzle. Alvin might be a small submersible, but its role in unearthing the ocean’s secrets has been a titanic one.

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Since its first official expedition in 1964, Alvin has taken more than 5,000 individual trips underwater. It has dived into active volcanoes and brought explorers to the wreck of the Titanic ; along the way, it has appeared in the pages of National Geographic and even made cameos on Saturday-morning cartoons. “It deserves a place in the Smithsonian,” says Dudley Foster, a pilot and manager of the Alvin Group from 1974 to 2006.

Still, Alvin is a long way from becoming a museum exhibit. The sub has undergone such extensive overhauls, modifications, and alterations that its creators would be hard-pressed to recognize its most recent incarnation: Not a single component of the original build remains on the vehicle.

In between its long stints on research cruises around the world, it has always called Woods Hole home. These days, Alvin and WHOI are inseparable; the sub’s original metal sail is proudly

Although the ocean accounts for more than 70 percent of our planet, humans have visited a mere 5 percent of its mass, and nearly all this exploration has roots in the 20th century. In 1956, a scientist named Allyn Vine stood up at an oceanographic conference in Washington, D.C., and proposed a submersible for the specific purpose of research. Vine had worked at WHOI since 1940 and had grown frustrated that he and other researchers were still trying to divine the ocean’s secrets from the surface. Their methods—taking sound samples to study fish and mammals by throwing explosives into the water, then timing their detonations to map the ocean floor—felt archaic.

The only time oceanographers get wet, one of Vine’s coworkers joked, is when they fall overboard. But by 1958, WHOI director Paul Fye slowly came around to Vine’s idea, even though WHOI couldn’t fund a manned submersible on its own. Vine and Fye turned to the Office of Naval Research, which approved a budget and commissioned the construction of a small submersible to be built specifically for the purpose of underwater exploration. The Navy contracted the sub’s design and building to General Mills, and, under the careful eye of a mechanical engineer named Harold “Bud” Froehlich, work began in the same factory that had constructed the machinery to make another American staple, Wheaties.

Froehlich centered his design on a spherical steel hull made to withstand the immense pressure it would

ning tower) and body would be made from aluminum and wrapped in a fiberglass skin, enabling it to descend to around 6,000 feet. To adjust its ballast, a pilot would pump oil into and out of rubber balloons, changing the submersible’s mass in the water, allowing it to rise without adjusting its weight.

On June 5, 1964, in front of a crowd of Navy brass and oceanographers, the completed vessel sat perched on a makeshift gantry in downtown Woods Hole. Onlookers sat on the roof of WHOI’s dockside laboratory, spitting distance from the ocean, and watched as the sub was lowered into the water. Bill Rainnie, a Navy veteran hired in 1961 as the first pilot, took it on a short test dive off the WHOI docks. The oddlooking little craft was given an unlikely name, in part a riff on Allyn Vine’s first and last names, and in part an homage to a group of musical chipmunks that squealed across airwaves in 1958.

One Saturday night in 1966, a WHOI physicist got a call at his home. It was the Navy. A B-52 bomber had collided with its refueling plane off the Spanish coast, killing seven airmen and losing four thermonuclear bombs. By the time the phone rang, three of the bombs had been recovered, but a fourth was still missing; witnesses reported an object drifting down into the Atlantic beneath a deployed parachute. The Air Force

asked the Navy to help, the Navy called WHOI, and soon the institute’s Deep Submergence Group was bobbing up and down in the Atlantic, taking turns searching in Alvin.

That the disarmed H-bomb couldn’t physically set off a nuclear reaction was cold comfort. The device contained

Spewing mineral-rich, superheated water from the seabed, hydrothermal vents (aka “smokers”) were first observed in 1980 during an Alvin expedition to the East Pacific Rise. It turned out that these fascinating deep-sea structures also harbored plant and animal communities, including giant white clams and tubeworms measuring more than six feet long.

more than enough TNT to kill anyone who happened to be floating nearby if it exploded. Plus, as the WHOI pilots were warned, it was possible the bomb was leaking plutonium.

For days, pilots worked their way through a murky underwater labyrinth, navigating more by feel than anything else. Marvin “Mac” McCamis, the second Alvin pilot hired by WHOI, was creeping along the sea floor when Rainnie spotted a faint track leading downward more than 2,000 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean. McCamis, who had grown up hunting in Indiana, moved Alvin ’s joystick almost by intuition, following the trail the way he’d track an animal through the woods. The strategy worked:

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Wedged in the middle of a steep incline lay the bomb. Over the course of the next three weeks, the bomb would be lost again, found once more, and eventually hauled to the surface. But during the first successful dive, McCamis and the two other members of the crew found cause to celebrate.

“The three men were smokers,” Alvin chronicler Victoria Kaharl related in her book, Water Baby, “and their craving got the better of them.” Despite the risks of suffocation and fire, the men lit up, sharing a cigarette passed furtively and carefully in the teeny cabin.

Just one year later, Alvin’s first season taking scientists underwater, a swordfish attacked the sub, becoming caught between its steel sphere and fiberglass exterior. Yet the incident was minor compared to what happened next.

At the time, the Deep Submergence Group was using a modified catamaran they’d named Lulu (after Vine’s mother)

as a mothership for Alvin. Pilots needed to drive Alvin between Lulu ’s twin hulls—a tenuous arrangement even in fair weather and a nightmare in stormy seas. In October 1968, Alvin returned to Lulu after a dive near the Cape. As it docked, one of the weathered, rusty cables used to hoist the sub snapped. Then a second broke. Its hatch open, Alvin began to sink, bobbing up and down through the waves, launching perilously close to the steel drums attached to Lulu ’s hulls. The three crew members, ducking and weaving like prizefighters beneath drums and the sinking submersible, launched themselves from Alvin onto Lulu ’s pontoon. In a cauldron of froth, Alvin slipped below the surface.

After a heated meeting, the Navy agreed to fund a salvage mission. Despite being nearly a mile underwater for 10 months, Alvin was intact when WHOI finally located and rescued the sub. When engineer Cliff Win-

get and his coworkers finally drained their prize, they found the baloney sandwiches and apples packed for the dive were also intact. As a test pilot, Winget had “borrowed” aircraft three times in his military career, so he wasn’t going to let fear spoil a packed lunch: He knelt on Lulu’ s deck and chomped down on the sandwich. Turned out, it was still good. (Winget’s stunt eventually led curious scientists to launch the notorious “Alvin lunch experiment” to measure the decomposition of organic material at different ocean depths. Now, as some researchers float the idea of using the ocean as a storage unit to hold carbon dioxide—it already absorbs up to 30 percent of man-made CO 2 —the experiment’s findings have resurfaced as a possible solution to combat climate change.)

By the early 1970s, the decade-old Deep Submergence Group had initiated a second generation of pilots to “fly” Alvin underwater, and undertook a round of significant modifications to keep improving the range of its submersible. For instance, Alvin had a steel

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hull and an aluminum frame, which meant engineers were constantly battling rust and corrosion. So the group transitioned to Alvin ’s first titanium hull, and changed out the aluminum frame for a titanium one.

Like Winget, Dudley Foster had been a fighter pilot before joining WHOI. When he finished up his military service in California, he bounced around, hunting for steady work, eventually taking a job at his father’s trucking service in the Boston area. He considered returning to school to study oceanography, “but I thought I’d like to see what they actually did before I went back,” he remembers now.

Foster sent in an application to WHOI and was immediately hired. At first, he worked as a liaison of sorts between scientists and the engineers responsible for outfitting Alvin. “I was in for a couple of weeks and [WHOI] asked me if I’d like to go out and see how the sub worked,” he recalls. “So, I started going to sea, and I continued doing that for 30 years.”

Foster began training to become one of Alvin ’s pilots, who were certified by the Navy. Among other things, candidates were required to sit in a room and draw Alvin ’s hydraulics and other systems from memory. “Operating the sub is pretty routine,” Foster says. “I think pilots generally lose interest if they’re not interested in the science, because the science is the pretty big variable.” On its surface, the role of Alvin pilot is buried in the minutiae of safely operating the deep-sea submersible. Informally, though, Alvin pilots have acted as guides to an underwater world. Thousands of researchers have climbed down the sail into Alvin ’s tiny cockpit, and every time, a pilot has safely executed each of its missions.

Foster’s career as pilot and program manager coincided with some of Alvin’s most blockbuster discoveries. His initial dives as a pilot-in-command were on the fabled Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and in 1977 he and others took scientists to the East Pacific Rise’s hydrothermal vents for the first time, slaloming the submersible between massive black smokers, which billowed searing mineral water into a frigid ocean.

The expedition, mainly composed of geologists, was unprepared for the sheer magnitude of plant and animal life on the ocean floor.

In 1986, on a trip organized by the oceanographer and geologist Robert Ballard, the sub had its most famous dive: to 12,000 feet off the coast of Newfoundland to find the wreck of the Titanic, which had last been seen by floating survivors on April 15, 1912. The grainy black-and-white footage shot from Alvin and the accompanying remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason Junior has become synonymous with the modern era of human exploration.

Foster remembers the Titanic dives with the trademark nonchalance of a fighter jock and the analytical mind of an engineer. Hunting for a wreck interested him less than discovering the hydrothermal vents and diving on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. However, as unmanned vehicles like Jason Junior have gained prominence and reliability, they have often replaced human-occupied vehicles (HOVs). “There are several other [HOV] vehicles in the world that were doing similar things [to Alvin] … but most of them are on a shelf somewhere, if not in a museum,” Foster notes.

It’s true that scientists increasingly rely on ROVs to explore the ocean. But it’s also true that Alvin ’s continued presence in the scientific community is driven by something that’s impossible to measure. Bruce Strickrott, current manager of the Alvin Group, is one of the sub’s current generation of believers, bent on carrying the torch and continuing Alvin ’s work. Strickrott’s background was perfect Alvin material: a skier, pilot, and scuba diver, as well as a Navy engineer who’d served in Desert Storm. He possessed the perfect blend of engineering savvy and exploratory gusto.

Strickrott’s hiring by WHOI in 1996 coincided with one of Alvin’s routine overhauls, when the submersible was little more than scattered pieces on the institute’s workshop floor. By 1997, it was up and running again, and Strickrott participated in more than 400 dives in his role as pilot, then chief pilot, expedition leader, and finally as head of the Alvin program. During those dives, he

watched scores of researchers’ faces light up as they unearthed a world that had once been hidden.

To Strickrott, Alvin isn’t just a vehicle. It’s a window into what makes us most human. “It’s built into our DNA— literally—to go explore, to go places,” he says. “Not just to look at them, but to go to them.

“I’m a zealot,” he adds, jokingly. “I always tell people we’re here to keep the sub going, but I think it actually works the other way around.”

During the winter of 2024 –2025, Jill McDermott headed back to 9 North—using Alvin , of course—to study changes in permeability in the hydrothermal vents and to try to accurately predict the next underwater volcanic eruption using the findings. As oceans warm and sea levels rise, there’s a sense that the oceanography the sub enables is far more vital now than when Mac McCamis and crew snuck their forbidden cigarettes on Alvin’s first true mission in 1966.

Assisting McDermott and her team is new pilot Kaitlyn Beardshear, who, at just 28, is the second-youngest person in the program’s history to take Alvin ’s controls. Modern Alvin pilots must spend time working at each facet of the sub’s operation: becoming a Navy-certified maintenance technician, being a swimmer who assists with dives, working on the sub’s launch and recovery process, working as both surface controller and launch coordinator.

The process can take years. Only after all this, plus a Navy board review, are newly minted pilots like Beardshear cleared to sit behind Alvin ’s controls.

Immense pressure squeezes the 23-foot-long vehicle, but this might be outweighed by Alvin ’s heavy heritage.

“There’s a legacy here,” Beardshear says, “and you want to uphold that. You’re not just responsible for people and the sub, and their safety, but the history behind this, too.”

When it returns, Alvin will be brought onshore, torn apart, rebuilt, tinkered with, improved. And then, once again, Alvin will be taken back out to sea, ready to explore another unknown beneath the waves.

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Ageless Sages

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Life in the Kingdom

(Continued from p. 120)

something we think we know about the story of our lives. Maybe my story is this: I love cutting firewood. I love the acrid smell of chainsaw exhaust and even, from a certain distance, of a lit cigarette. I love sunlight slanting through the trees. I like a good cheese sandwich now and then: sharp cheddar, dense bread, a generous slather of mayo. That’s all you need. There’s no need to complicate things.

In journalism, there’s a term for what I’m doing: It’s called burying the lede, which is the practice of hiding the main point of a story inside another story. (I don’t know why it’s spelled “lede” and not “lead,” but it is.) And here is my buried lede: This is my final “Life in the Kingdom” column, and I find myself feeling strangely sanguine about its ending. Perhaps on some level, I know it’s time to bring it to a close. Perhaps already I’ve hung on too long. After all, I’ve been writing here for more than a decade. I’ve written through so many repeating seasons, so many years, so much change. I’ve written about my sons as boys, then teens, and most recently as men, living thousands of miles away. One is a ski patroller, whitewater kayak instructor, musician, and leader of wilderness expeditions. The other is a cowboy and farrier. My pride in them is bigger than the fullest moon; my love for them exceeds my ability to articulate it by such measure that I’m not even going to try.

I’ve written about the places and people and animals most dear to me. I’ve written about the weather (always, the weather). I’ve written about cars and trucks and tractors. I’ve arguably written far too much about firewood, though clearly that hasn’t stopped me from writing even more about firewood. I’ve expounded at length about moments so small, mundane, and unimportant to anyone but myself that I’m frankly a little embarrassed by my self-indulgence. I’ve written about marriage, and I’ve written about the ending of marriage. I’ve written a lot.

I’m going to miss this space. Selfishly, I’ll miss the blinking, questioning cursor at the beginning of a blank page and the permission to write whatever strikes me. What more could any writer dare to ask for? I’m grateful to Yankee for granting me this permission for so many years, and I’m overwhelmingly grateful to Mel Allen, my editor for the majority of those years. The column was his idea from the outset, and it’s always felt to me as if it belonged to him almost as much as it belonged to me. So: Thank you, Mel. You were a hell of a good editor.

But more than anything, I’ll miss all of you. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: The simple fact of your time and attention is an incredible privilege. I’ve tried not to take it for granted—though I’m sure, as the coming months tick by with no column to write, I’ll realize just how much I did take it for granted. Whatever the case, thank you all for reading. Thank you to those who have sent notes of support, and even critiques, which of course are

their own form of caring. If there’s a perfect way to end this, I’m not sure what it is. So, I guess I’ll just say goodbye and move on with my day. It’s midmorning, sunny, a little chilly. In a few minutes, I’m going to lace up my boots, grab my chainsaw, and head out the door; I’m about halfway through blocking up a decent-size maple that blew down sometime over the summer, and I’m keen to get it done. This weather won’t hold forever. But first, I’m going to finish my second cup of coffee, run a file over the saw chain, and then make myself a cheese sandwich for the woods.

Editors’ note: Even though “Life in the Kingdom” ends with this issue, Ben Hewitt’s connection to Yankee does not. Ben came to this magazine as a feature writer, and we aim to publish more of his longer-format stories going forward. In the meantime, you can find a complete index of “Life in the Kingdom” columns at newengland.com/ kingdom

Taking Stock

A one-year-long column about rural living grew into more than a decade of storytelling. And now, writing the closing lines doesn’t come easy.

ILLUSTRATION BY TOM HAUGOMAT

he way I remember it, my father was cutting firewood and I was loading the stove-length pieces into the open hatchback of a ’70s-era Honda Civic. It was blue. No, brown. Or maybe just blue and very rusty. It was late September, or perhaps a particularly warm day in October. He was wearing jeans and tennis shoes and a T-shirt. He’d just taken a break to smoke a Lucky Strike, and as he smoked, I sat and ate the cheese sandwich my mother

had packed for me. The smoke from his cigarette made a lazy drift in the air. It was midmorning. The sun shot through the canopy of turning leaves in slanting bolts. I was 8.

I know that any one of these particulars could be wrong. Maybe it wasn’t a ’70s-era Honda Civic (though certainly my father owned one at some point in my childhood). Maybe there wasn’t a cheese sandwich (though it seems likely). Maybe he wasn’t wearing jeans

and tennis shoes and a T-shirt (though the Lucky Strike, I’m sure, was real). Maybe I was 7 or 9 or even 10. Maybe it was raining. Memories are funny that way: They can seem so clear and specific and yet be riddled with errors. I think that sometimes we remember in the ways we want to remember. We remember in the ways that serve us— provide us a bit of comfort, or confirm

(Continued on p. 119)

Whether

Whether

Whether you're enjoying a wine tasting, dining in our restaurants, golfing, or enjoying LaBelle Lights, you'll feel our passion in every detail.

Whether you're enjoying a wine tasting, dining in our restaurants, attending a wedding or event, golfing, or enjoying LaBelle Lights, you'll feel our passion in every detail. Come experience LaBelle!

dining in our restaurants, attending a wedding or event, golfing, or enjoying LaBelle Lights, you'll feel our passion in every detail. Come experience LaBelle!