Messages

361

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Christmas Festival Recommendations

« on: October 27, 2010, 02:39:18 PM »

Top Ten Things to see/do at Old Time Christmas

1. The Train Ride (no train robbery on this trip, instead you get to have a beautiful/inspiring visit with grandpa).  No matter how long the lines are for the train ride....please don't miss this!
2. The Christmas Carol at the Opera House
3. The Living Nativity in Red Gold Heritage Hall.
4. The lighting of the Giant Christmas Tree
5. The Gifts of Christmas Parade (you need to see it at least once)
6. Hot Chocolate (get the works with whipped cream, chocolate chips, marshmallows and a candy cane--bring your refillable mug and its only $1.75)
7. Hot Apple Dumplings with ice cream.
8. See Terry S. as "Clarence Peabody" Santa's head elf (along with Santa Himself) at Kringles Crossing (in the Carousel Barn by RiverBlast)
9. Frosty the Snowman (yes its a children's show, but you need to see it at least once)
10. The lights reflecting off Lake Silver.

362

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2011 Project

« on: October 24, 2010, 09:57:58 PM »

I know it wouldn't be the greatest for us, But my younger kids would be ecstatic if they brought the balloons back!

363

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Halloween at SDC

« on: October 24, 2010, 09:15:49 PM »

If I had to choose between Halloween at SDC and OTC the way it is, I would choose the Christmas festival hands down. 

Also KBCraig and OklaSDCfan are both correct.

Halloween, Christmas, and Easter were all attempts to Christianize Pagan Holidays.  All Saints Day was originally held in May, it was moved in the 8th Century by Pope Gregory to correspond with the Celtic festival Samhain and its Roman corollary. The early church followed the Jewish custom of celebrating a holy-day with the start of sundown the previous evening. Thus the night before All Saints Day (AKA All Hallows Day) was called All Hallows Eve, which was shortened to Halloween.  Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Church door on October 31, 1517, because he knew the church would be gathering for All Hallow's Eve services. Christmas was an even earlier attempt to Christianize the Saturnalia festival.  Instead of celebrating the birthday of the sun god on December 25. Christians started celebrating the birthday of the Son of God.  The December 25th date for Christmas was actually fixed at the Council of Nicea in 325AD. Prior to that, Christmas was celebrated on January 6. The Eastern Orthodox still celebrate Christmas on January 6. But January 6 is now regarded as the Day of the Epiphany in the Western Church.  The Council of Nicea also fixed the date of Easter to be the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. This happened to correspond with the pagan festival of Astarte, the goddes of spring.  In the British Isles it was  called the festival of Eostra.  According to the Venerable Bede (10th Century AD), on the day of the Vernal Equinox a sacred rabbit comes into the land and lays a sacred egg (No Cadbury didn’t make that up!).  Out of the sacred egg the goddess of fertility/spring, Eostra, is hatched.  When the goddess hatches from the egg, she ascends to the sky, hovers over the fields until harvest, then dies with the harvest, and is reborn again in the spring by the same process.  The word "Easter" is actually the name for the festival of Eostra, as it is a variation of her name.  Thus all three holidays were attempts to Christianize pagan holidays, obviously it worked pretty well with Christmas and Easter, but not so much for Halloween. But I still celebrate all three.

364

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Halloween at SDC

« on: October 23, 2010, 04:15:14 PM »

Does anybody know if any of the other Herschend parks do anything with Halloween?

365

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Halloween at SDC

« on: October 22, 2010, 08:50:07 PM »

I saw some discussion about Halloween at SDC on another thread.  So I decided to start a thread to discuss  the possibilities of Halloween at SDC.  Halloween wasn't celebrated very much in the United States prior to the 20th century.  So I don't know if it would even be appropriate for SDC theme-wise. (Whereas most of the Christmas traditions had started taking hold in America in the latter half of the 19th century. Thomas Moore published his famous poem in 1823. So even Santa was already part of the picture.)  Perhaps you could do a Halloween theme like "Baldknobbers gone wild!" Take the theme of Fire-in-the-hole and spread across the whole park.  Baldknobbers trying to get you, the undertaker chasing you.  It could be scary in a fun way.  Whaddya think?

366

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: List ya'r favorite sounds

« on: October 22, 2010, 08:19:57 PM »

The Sleighbells on the covered bridge during OTC.
The music on the square during OTC.
Grandpa telling us about the true meaning of Christmas on the train ride.

(Been thinking alot about the Old Time Christmas festival, if you hadn't guessed  )

367

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: flooded mine question

« on: October 18, 2010, 08:39:19 PM »

There's a copy of The Sounds of Silver Dollar City on Ebay right now.

368

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: new SDC Times

« on: October 18, 2010, 08:36:39 PM »

The last Times I received was in June.  It did have two "bring-a-friend" coupons for OTC and several others for the summer and fall. I haven't seen anything else.  The on-line edition I saw didn't have any coupons in it.  There is a link to the on-line version of the last edition posted earlier in this thread.  I don't know if it still active.

369

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Birthdays

« on: October 17, 2010, 07:18:34 PM »

Does SDC do anything special for birthdays (for those who aren't turning 50 this year)?  I know Eva and Delilah's have the birthday cakes, anything else?  We may be at SDC for my daughters 11th b-day.  Also, what size are the b-day cakes from the bakery? Thanks.

370

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: new SDC Times

« on: October 17, 2010, 07:15:18 PM »

Sorry to bring up this old thread, but does anyone know how often these come out?  Is it just once a year?

371

SDC Memories/ Park History / Re: First SDC Memory

« on: October 15, 2010, 08:16:41 PM »

Wondering if the train robbery was for real!  Hey, I was only 6!

372

Random Talk / Re: Picture Help

« on: October 04, 2010, 09:46:47 PM »

Thanks for your help guys.  It is a cool map.  It currently resides in my stuff I left at my mother's house.  I showed it to my kids the other day.  It's hard to believe that there was a time when the train station and the flooded mine were the back end of the park.

373

Random Talk / Picture Help

« on: October 03, 2010, 04:35:01 PM »

I have a poster size (approx. 22"X 34") souvenir map from SDC, circa 1975.  Any suggestions as to how I could post it on this site?

374

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Top Ten Rejected Characters at SDC

« on: October 02, 2010, 09:56:23 PM »

I have never had the privilege of meeting Ada Mae (though I have seen her in pictures).  I was hoping to meet her this Summer.  But I guess it was not to be.  Still, my teenage son is looking for a girlfriend and I thought Ada would be a perfect fit. Darn!   

375

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Top Ten Rejected Characters at SDC

« on: October 02, 2010, 09:16:13 PM »

Believe it or not, Miss Ada Mae has her own Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ada-Mae/105749849459605?v=wall&ref=ts   She broke the news of her illness and pending demise back in March.  (Note, the page is not operated by Terry S. But he is on their "Likes This" list...as am I.)  The person operating the page, has suggested that people call the park and ask for Ada Mae.