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Georgia

Christmas in Savannah

Program No. 22515RJ
Experience Savannah and its one-of-a-kind Christmas traditions. Explore the city’s historic district, learn its Civil War history and enjoy holiday traditions from Savannah’s past.

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Price will update based on selection
Prices displayed below are based on per person,doubleoccupancy.
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Dec 22 - Dec 27, 2024
Starting at
2,149
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Dec 22 - Dec 27, 2024
Starting at
2,729

At a Glance

Christmas in Savannah is a sight to behold — twinkling lights line the city streets, massive evergreens are decorated top-to-bottom in ornaments and bows and the city’s trademark Southern hospitality shines through. Celebrate the holidays while discovering the city’s Gothic mansions, beautiful cathedrals and mouth-watering cuisine. Explore the city’s historic district, learn its Civil War history with local experts and visit historic houses dressed in period decorations. Enjoy an evening of dinner, entertainment and an unforgettable riverboat ride along the historic city waterfront city.
Activity Level
On Your Feet
Walking up to 1 mile on uneven terrain. Standing for lectures in museums. Historical structures have stairs/no elevator.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Experience a production of “A Christmas Tradition” in one of the country’s oldest continually run theaters.
  • Take a field trip to the historic Isaiah Davenport House to learn about local holiday traditions of that period.
  • Explore by trolley the lovely squares, cathedrals and the annual Gingerbread Village Competition.
Featured Expert
All Experts
Profile Image
Jamie Keena, Period Music
Jamie Keena loves to sing old songs, including folk songs of America and the British Isles, patriotic airs, and “songs written to order” by Tin Pan Alley composers. With a bachelor’s in music from the College of William and Mary, Jamie accompanies his singing with guitar, banjo and ukulele, and also plays the fife, hammered dulcimer and concertina.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Profile Image of Jamie Keena, Period Music
Jamie Keena, Period Music View biography
Jamie Keena loves to sing old songs, including folk songs of America and the British Isles, patriotic airs, and “songs written to order” by Tin Pan Alley composers. With a bachelor’s in music from the College of William and Mary, Jamie accompanies his singing with guitar, banjo and ukulele, and also plays the fife, hammered dulcimer and concertina.
Profile Image of Joyce Harvison
Joyce E Harvison View biography
Joyce Harvison epitomizes Southern hospitality. A native of Savannah, she has worked for the last 30+ years in Savannah's Historic District, first as an insurance agent, and the last 16 years as a Director of Groups/Charters with a local trolley company showing off the city’s best sights to visitors from near and far. She revels in treating family, friends, and visitors to the best possible time, including hidden gems when they visit her home town. Joyce has two daughters and three grandchildren.
Profile Image of Beverley Citron
Beverley Citron View biography
Beverley Citron grew up in Bournemouth in the south of England, and currently resides in the great state of Georgia. With a desire for adventure and thirst for new experiences, combining work with travel allows her to enjoy both. Beverley joined the Road Scholar team in 2010.
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Rebels, Saints, and Sinners: Savannah's Rich History and Colorful Personalities
by Timothy Daiss
Since its founding in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, the city of Savannah has experienced many triumphs and disasters. Its citizens have endured hurricanes, fires, and epidemics, and they have dealt successfully with social injustice and political corruption. Savannahians have also experienced both sides of war-winning as colonial rebels in the American Revolution and losing as Confederate patriots in the Civil War-and they have welcomed many heroes and stars to their city such as George Washington, Elvis Presley, and Shoeless Joe Jackson. In Rebels, Saints, and Sinners, Timothy Daiss tells the story of Savannah through captivating anecdotes about the city's past-a past full of intriguing characters and astonishing twists of fate. This book offers a wealth of detailed historical research presented in easily accessible prose, and it is a must-read for history buffs, travelers, educators, and anyone else interested in America's greatest cities.
Saving Savannah - The City and the Civil War
by Jacqueline Jones
In this masterful portrait of life in Savannah before, during, and after the Civil War, prize-winning historian Jacqueline Jones transports readers to the balmy, raucous streets of that fabled Southern port city. Here is a subtle and rich social history that weaves together stories of the everyday lives of blacks and whites, rich and poor, men and women from all walks of life confronting the transformations that would alter their city forever. Deeply researched and vividly written, Saving Savannah is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the Civil War years.
Savannah Style: Mystery and Manners
by Susan Sully
Savannah is a city of mercurial history and enigmatic charms. Home to cotton barons, shipping magnates, antiques dealers, and tireless preservationists, it has helped define Southern elegance, manner, and style for more than two centuries. From the slightly faded grandeur of the Second Empire baroque Thomas Levy House, filled with antique maps, prints, books, and other curiosities, to the phantasmal, Proustian decor of the high style Greek Revival Knapp House, the 20 houses featured in this book express the city's alternating moods of decadence and decorum. Quite often, a serene exterior-- designed in a Georgian, federal, or restrained Greek Revival style-- will relinquish its polite composure to an ingenious play of interior whimsy or flight of decorative fancy. Elegant town houses designed by William Jay, John Ash, Isaiah Davenport, and William Gibbons Preston, gracious plantation manors, and unpretentious summer cottages are featured in detail in word and image. A delightful foreword by John Berendt acts as an informative addendum to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and an excellent introduction to this book.
Slavery and Freedom in Savannah
by Daina Berry (Editor, Contributor), Leslie Harris (Editor, Contributor), Jonathan M. Bryant (Contributor), Bobby J. Donaldson (Contributor), Jacqueline Jones (Contributor), Timothy Lockleyby (Contributor), Susan O'Donovan (Contributor), Janice Sumler-Edmo
"Slavery and Freedom in Savannah" is a richly illustrated, accessibly written book modeled on the very successful "Slavery in New York," a volume Leslie M. Harris coedited with Ira Berlin. Here Harris and Daina Ramey Berry have collected a variety of perspectives on slavery, emancipation, and black life in Savannah from the city’s founding to the early twentieth century. Written by leading historians of Savannah, Georgia, and the South, the volume includes a mix of longer thematic essays and shorter sidebars focusing on individual people, events, and places.
Juliette Gordon Low: The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts
by Stacy A. Cordery
An in-depth biography of the multi-talented Savannah native and founder of the Girl Scouts. Available on Amazon.com and the J.G. Low Birthplace.
The Complete Stories: Flannery O'Conner
by Flannery O'Conner
Native Savannian who won the 1971 National Book Award for Fiction. Thirty-one tales depicting the humorous, of near tragic conditions of life in the Deep South during the fifties.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
by John Berendt
Referred to in Savannah as "The Book"-non-fiction, adult language-account of a local antique dealer, Jim Williams', four (!) trials for the same murder in the 1980's-also a Clint Eastwood movie released in 1997.





Important registration tip:
If you want to attend the live lecture, please do not wait until the last minute to enroll.
If you enroll after a lecture is complete, we’ll send you a recording of the event.