As the holiday season nears in our community, downtown springs to life with festive wreaths and twinkly lights lining the streets. People begin their gift shopping, and the holiday spirit sparks in us all. Old traditions join with new ones, and some traditions rise from the ashes to start again. One of those traditions is the beloved Yuletide Feaste.
This year, a new group of performers and singers will present the long-awaited fundraising event with a fresh perspective. Once an inevitable celebration presented by the Methodist University Chorale, the participants of Yuletide Feaste, some old and new, find themselves once again dusting off their period costumes, rehearsing their lines, and preparing for one of the most anticipated nights of the season.
Old traditions become anew
Cumberland Choral Arts is gearing up for its first year presenting the Yuletide Feaste, a Renaissance-style banquet, where they’ll perform Christmas carols while the Cross Creek Chorale plays the royal court of Queen Elizabeth in a theater-style dinner.
The event involves a lavishly catered meal, fanciful attire, and an extravagant theatrical experience to entertain guests as they dine. Attendees will witness the court of Queen Elizabeth as special guests to her holiday feast through entertaining dialogue, quips, and caroling. In the hands of the CCA and CCC, Yuletide Feaste returns as it was originally presented for over 10 years by the Methodist University Chorale.
After Michael Martin, artistic director of Cumberland Choral Arts, spent his first four years as the director of choral activities at Methodist University assisting in the growth of the music department, he decided that he wanted to do something special for the students of the Methodist University Chorale as the 2011 holiday season approached.
“I floated the idea by the students, ‘How would you guys like to do a madrigal feast?’” Michael explained.
A madrigal feast, seen often in high school and college settings, according to Michael, is a Renaissance-themed dinner theater event. The event often occurs around the Christmas season and involves a multi-course meal, singing, and entertainment.
Michael said the students were thrilled with the idea, hitting the ground running with plans for the event. It helped that Michael was no stranger to the planning of collegiate madrigal feasts.
While a graduate student at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, in 2004, Michael participated in Yuletide Feaste when C.M. Shearer, director of choral activities, brought the tradition to the university. Michael said C.M. was very supportive of the idea when Michael asked his permission to use his original script.
“Oh, he was thrilled,” Michael expressed with pride.
Pulling inspiration from C.M.’s original script with the help of the Cumberland Oratorio Singers, now the Cumberland Choral Arts, with costume and prop design, the Methodist University Chorale brought the tradition of Yuletide Feaste to Cumberland County in 2011.
Longtime Feaste participant, Elizabeth Wise, a graduate of Methodist University and former member of Methodist University Chorale, said Yuletide Feaste was what marked the beginning of her Christmas season each year. And she was more than just involved — she was the queen herself.
“It is different for each person who decides to be Queen Elizabeth. I think we all pretty much always decide we’re going to do a fake British accent,” Elizabeth said, laughing at the memory.
Elizabeth, now a member of CCA since graduating from Methodist University in 2017, said being involved with Yuletide Feaste again is a joy.
“It’s really a beautiful thing that we’re going to be able to bring this back to the community for Christmas,” Elizabeth said.
Arts from the ashes
Yuletide Feaste returns this year for the first time since 2022, after a period of uncertainty surrounding the beloved event.
In December 2023, students and faculty at Methodist University were at a loss for words when the school cut its fine arts and music programs, ending not only the traditional Yuletide Feaste but the Methodist University Chorale — replaced by the CCA and CCC in this year’s Feaste — itself. This came as a shock for Michael, as the music department and the 12-year-long tradition of Yuletide Feaste were everything he knew and loved.
The challenge of sustaining the arts in schools is not a new concept for many educational institutions across the country. In 2021, in the wake of Covid-19, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences developed a report titled “Art for Life’s Sake: The Case for Arts Education,” as a “call to action” for support of the arts in schools.
The report explains that, while 83% of Americans favor funding for arts education, there has been a significant decrease in bachelor’s degrees earned in art education from 1,800 in 2000 to just over 800 in 2019.
Michael expressed that as a casualty of the under-appreciation of arts in society, he finds the support of events like Yuletide Feaste even more vital at this time.
“The truth of the matter is that it’s the arts that make us human,” Michael expressed. “They help us understand beauty. They help us understand ourselves.”
Michael said his hope is that by bringing more arts into the community through events like Yuletide Feaste, the interest will trickle down to schools and universities, emphasizing the importance of the arts for generations to come.
Bringing Christmas cheer to the community
Despite the adversity it has faced, Yuletide Feaste has been a tradition that has brought Christmas cheer to the community for many years. Michael said one of his favorite traditions of Yuletide Feastes past was rounding out dress rehearsals by performing for local assisted living facilities. One such facility once housed the former Methodist University president, Elton Hendricks.
“I was so thrilled that he was there to see the piece because he was no longer the president when we started doing Feaste,” Michael explained.
He said performing for the residents was always an emotional and eye-opening experience for his students as many of the residents missed out on Christmas traditions while living in the facility.
Michael said this has always been the goal of Yuletide Feaste for him and his fellow participants: to bring joy and Christmas cheer to all who yearn for it.
“It’s really one of the joys that I have to present something that makes people laugh and smile,” Michael said.
Yuletide Feaste is open to any and all, and Michael said attendees can expect humorous jokes, delicious food, and wonderful holiday moments. Carols will be sung by the queen’s court as food is served, the queen will arrive in style surrounded by celebratory horns, and guests will be able to observe the introduction of lords and ladies as they dine.
Michael said the carols sung are a great array of songs from the Renaissance era as well as some more modern titles. Before the court bids their guests adieu, Silent Night will round out the evening with the lights turned down low and both guests and performers caroling together. Michael said it’s this moment that means the most to him.
“The arrangement for Silent Night is from my mother’s old carol book from when I was growing up,” Michael explained, “and it always makes me think of her.”
From a tradition made anew by a hopeful choral activities director in 2011 to meaningful moments of beloved carols sung from a cherished book, traditions remain the foundation of the Yuletide Feaste. And when a tradition dating back as far as the 1400s still grasps the wonder and curiosity of those today, that’s when you know its magic can never be contained.
The details
Cumberland Choral Arts’ Yuletide Feaste will be held at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 14 at Haymount United Methodist Church with doors opening at 7 p.m. Meal options will include a chicken and vegetarian option plated individually for each guest and served in coordination with the script of the Yuletide Feaste performance.
Ticket sales information yet to be announced. Tickets will be $50 until Dec. 2. Proceeds from the event will support Cumberland Choral Arts, Cross Creek Chorale, and the Campbellton Youth Chorus.
Read CityView magazine’s “Home for the Holidays” December 2024 e-edition here.
