From our farm to your home ~ Happy Holidays from The Rocks Estate

After this year’s annual flurry of festive fun at The Rocks Estate, we trust our friends and customers are nestled in with beautifully trimmed Christmas trees and visions of sugarplums and other holiday delights dancing through their heads.

In this holiday season, we are honored that so many of you spent part of your Christmastime with us at The Rocks. Whether you ordered a tree through our online shop or walked the fields at the farm to find and cut the perfect one, selected a wreath or a unique gift from our shops, visited with Green Father Christmas, or rode through the Estate in a horse-drawn wagon – we hope your Rocks experience added a bit of magic to your holidays.

Things will be quieter at The Rocks in the days following Christmas, but there is always something happening at the farm. Our trail system is open daily from dawn ‘til dusk (leashed pets are always welcome!).

As the North Country Conservation & Education center for the Forest Society, we also offer interactive educational programs throughout the year, including our Bretzfelder Park Family Educational Series, which returns in February. For these programs and others offered at The Rocks in the coming year, please visit our online calendar.

And don’t forget the New Hampshire Maple Experience returns in March!

For now, from our farm to your home, all of us at The Rocks wish you a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years!

Green Father Christmas adds a festive twist to the holiday fun at The Rocks Estate

The Rocks' Green Father Christmas with Nigel Manley

Father Christmas, Jolly Old St. Nick, Santa Claus… call him what you will, this character is an integral part of modern Christmas celebrations. A potpourri of many factual and fictitious characters from various cultures, Santa has become one of the most recognized symbols of Christmas – along with the Christmas tree, of course!

At The Rocks, we introduced a Green Father Christmas in 2008, and he’s returned to the farm every year since during the holidays, spreading the cheer of the season and the hope of brightening days to come. Green Father Christmas will visit The Rocks each Saturday from November 23 thru December 14.

The red-and-white clad Santa who sets visions of sugarplums (and new toys) to dancing through children’s heads is likely the combination of many Christmas legends from various times and customs. He is St. Nicholas dropping coins down chimneys and into stockings, King Frost bringing cold and snow, Father Winter representing the hope of longer days and approaching springtime, Odin delivering gifts on his magical eight-legged horse, and more.

When Nigel Manley, the longtime manager of The Rocks, discovered images of a green-clad Father Christmas carrying evergreen boughs in 2008, he knew this character would be the perfect representative of the holidays at The Rocks. At the farm, Green Father Christmas embodies the joyful and hopeful spirit of the season as well as the importance of land conservation and forest preservation, which are central to our mission as the North Country Conservation & Education Center for the Forest Society.

Once again, The Rocks’ Green Father Christmas will wander the farm this season with his bag filled with fir tree seedlings. These he will give to children, who may bring the seedlings home, tend to them through the winter, and plant them outside once the green of spring replaces winter’s snowy white – a symbol of the lasting joy of Christmas and the hopeful beginnings of days to come!

For more about the holidays at The Rocks, check out the latest news on our website or visit our online calendar.

The Holiday Season is ON at The Rocks Estate

We’ve already seen the season’s first snow here at The Rocks, and we are ready to open for the season this Saturday, November 17^th!

We have a full slate of festively fun activities planned throughout the holidays, from horse-drawn wagon rides through the farm to roasting marshmallows at our fire pit, along with visits with our own Green Father Christmas and two holiday shops filled to the brim with holiday accessories and unique gifts.

And Christmas trees, of course! Cut-your-own customers are invited to meander through our fields of fir trees to find their perfect tree. We also have a retail lot at The Rocks, with fresh-cut Christmas trees from large to small.

The Rocks will be open daily, from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. right through Christmas Eve. Wagon rides are offered November 17^th, 23^rd-25^th, and December 1^st-2^nd, 8^th-9^th, and 15^th. Green Father Christmas visits The Rocks Saturdays from November 17^th through December 15^th and will have fir tree seedlings for children to bring home.

Our Gift Shop and The Rocks Marketplace are open daily during the holiday season, offering an array of handmade wreaths created right here at the farm, ornaments, a plethora of New England-crafted items, maple syrup, fudge, and much more.

To find out more about what’s happening at The Rocks this holiday season, take a look at our online calendar. 

And don’t forget our Christmas Memory vacation package, offered in collaboration with the region’s best inns and hotels. Stay at any one of the participating lodging establishments, and you’ll enjoy a horse-drawn wagon ride and all the other holiday fun at The Rocks AND receive a Christmas tree as part of the package. Please visit our website for more information and a list of participating inns and hotels.

In fact, if you “Like” The Rocks on Facebook, you may enter to win a 2013 two-day Christmas Memory Package, comprising a stay at the Indian Head Resort, a beautiful farm fresh tree, and a holiday wreath. Check our Facebook page for details.

If you can’t make it to The Rocks in person, we invite you to visit our super shopper-friendly online store, where you’ll find a wonderful variety of Christmas trees, wreaths, accessories and gifts – all with free shipping!

The Rocks Estate is a beautiful place to be during the holidays… we hope to see you at the farm soon!