Bracebridge Dinner | At Yosemite

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Yosemite National Park’s Bracebridge Dinner 

Yosemite National Park’s Bracebridge Dinner has become a true American tradition since its inception in 1927 in the magnificent Yosemite Valley. This spectacular Christmas pageant takes place in the Grand Dining Room of the Ahwahnee Hotel, which is transformed into the luxuriant Hall of American author Washington Irving’s legendary “Squire Bracebridge".

Each December, the world-famous Hotel takes on the air of eighteenth-century England. The Dining Room of The Majestic, its tables aglow with candlelight, is filled with the warmth and spirit of this special time of year. The evening abounds with a profusion of food and the ringing sound of voices. The cathedral windows look out onto the beauty of Yosemite Valley, and the spirit of all things beautiful cannot help but be felt, as one is enveloped in the joy of the season.

The original Ahwahnee Hotel was completed in 1927. Yosemite Park and Curry Company President Donald Tresidder envisioned a Yuletide celebration in the new Hotel’s Dining Room. He hired Garnet Holme, a California pageant director, to create an “event,” and The Bracebridge Dinner took its initial form, a performance loosely based on Washington Irving’s sketchbook “A Christmas at Bracebridge Hall.” Tresidder and his wife, Mary Curry Tresidder, played the parts of Squire and Lady Bracebridge.

Holmes' untimely death in 1929 left a void in the direction of this new festivity. A cast member of the first two seasons – a part-time Valley resident who had played the part of The Lord of Misrule – was asked by Tresidder to take on the task of reworking the event. This cast member was Ansel Adams, who was well on his way at that time to become one of the world’s finest photographers. Adams did a brilliant job of creating the basic form of the pageant as we know it today. His original script of the “new” Bracebridge Dinner has remained largely intact since the initial performance in 1929. A fine pianist, as well as a photographer, Adams’ knowledge of music, evidenced itself in the meter of the script, which was written with a feeling of four beats per line to reflect the music chosen for the male chorus processions.