In the early 1800s Christmas was not the festive holiday it is today. Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens helped change that. In fact, through Victoria’s influence on popular culture and Dickens’ literary reach, these two important figures helped create and spread many of the holiday traditions that we still follow today.
In this special holiday episode, Candy and Ashley (along with their husbands, Kirk and Brian) celebrate the Victorian Christmas, often referred to as the Dickens Christmas, with a field trip to the Conrad-Caldwell House Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.
Join the two couples as they share their reactions to a candlelight tour of this stunning historic home, including fascinating insights shared by tour guides and the director of the Conrad-Caldwell House. This is one holiday treat you won’t want to miss!
Charles Dickens, The New York TimesUNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1754: Marley’s ghost appearing to Scrooge. Illustration for Charles DickenMarley’s ghost appearing to Scrooge. Illustration for Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” 19th century. Universal Images Group / Getty Imagess (1812-1870) A Christmas Carol, London 1843-1844 (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball, Hand colored etching by John Leech from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, via Wikimedia CommonsA drawing of Victoria and Albert with their children, around a Christmas tree Source: BBC
Above is a gallery of images Ashley took while on the field trip to the Conrad-Caldwell House during the Candlelight Tour
Ashley is an award-winning Independent Filmmaker from Northern Kentucky. Her first film, “No Lost Cause” is currently internationally distributed and was recently featured on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). Her memoir recalling her experience creating a film on a micro budget, “The Why Not Philosophy or How We Learned to Let Go, Trust God and Defeat the Raptors,” was released February 2015 and is available on Amazon.com. Her second feature film, “The Hepburn Girls” was released on Amazon.com and Vimeo.com in the summer of 2016.
Ashley is also a long-time lover of all things theatre and in the spring of 2014, she helped found and became the Vice-President of the theatre company, “The Theatre Downstream.” Their first large scale summer musical, “Beauty and the Beast” was awarded Best Musical (Local), Best Actor in a Musical (Local), Best Actress in a Musical (Local), and Best Set Design by the BroadwayWorld Louisville awards in 2016, and their 2017 production of "Annie" sold over 2,100 tickets, a company record-breaking number!
No matter what the project, Ashley is happiest when she is able to bring talented people and their art together for the consumption and appreciation of the public. While her taste remains vintage, she is grateful for the technology of the modern world and the opportunity to share her thoughts, aspirations, and misadventures.
Her lofty dreams are to create things that people remember and to one day own an alpaca. Above all, she loves God, her family, her friends, her cats, and brownies.
External websites:
“No Lost Cause”- NoLostCausedvd.com
The Theatre Downstream- TheTheatreDownstream.com
“The Why Not Philosophy”- http://www.amazon.com/Why-Not-Philosophy-Learned-Raptors/dp/1508557004/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455555613&sr=8-1&keywords=ashley+raymer-brown
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