Looking for something cozy and Christmas-y?
How about an evening in the gaslit 19th-century Merchant’s House, sitting in front of a roaring yule log, sipping a hot drink of oranges, port wine, cloves and cinnamon?
Or maybe an afternoon munching straight-from-the-hearth roasted chestnuts at Staten Island’s Historic Richmond Town?
December is the perfect time to visit New York’s historic houses, most of which are gussied up with old-fashioned holiday decorations like tabletop Christmas trees (which were all the rage in the 1850s) and antique tinsel (which, as the name suggests, was originally made from scraps of twisted tin).
Somehow it’s easier to find the season’s true meaning at these tiny and charming museums that it is at Toys ‘R’ Us.
Merchant’s House Museum
29 E. Fourth St., at Lafayette St.; (212) 777-1089.
This 1832 Federal-era house in NoHo will be decked out in boughs of holly and “kissing balls” of mistletoe this weekend.
You can sit before the fire in the parlor and learn wreath and evergreen decorating from the museum’s head gardener, or just wander through this elegant brick residence, which was built in 1832 as a home for wealthy hardware importer Seabury Tredwell.
The Merchants House stayed in the Tredwell family until 1933, when the youngest daughter died, and the house was converted into a museum.
Wednesday evening, the house hosts its annual holiday party, where you can listen to carols, meet Seabury Tredwell (or at least an actor dressed as him), and sip some of that spiced-oranges-and-port-wine concoction mentioned above.
$6. Today, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and tomorrow, 1 to 5 p.m. tomorrow. The holiday party starts Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. and costs $25.
Historic Richmond Town
441 Clarke Ave., Staten Island; (718) 351-1611.
Staten Island’s Richmond Town living-history museum is the closest the metro area gets to Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg.
You can spend a whole day wandering through the museum’s 15 restored homes and talking with volunteers who dress up as 19th- century craftsmen.
Today and tomorrow, carolers are strolling the streets and each of the houses is garlanded with a holiday theme.
In one house, you can play old American parlor games like skittles, a precursor to bowling using wooden pins and a small wooden ball.
In another, you can make a paper ornament for your own tree, eat roasted chestnuts and hear a storyteller read the 1822 Clement Clark Moore poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” which these days is better known by its first line, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
$5. Today and tomorrow, 1 to 5 p.m. Next weekend there will be candlelit tours ($25) that start at 5 p.m.
Van Cortlandt House Museum
Van Cortlandt Park, Broadway at 246th Street, Riverdale, The Bronx; (718) 543-3344.
It’s little known these days, but in the 18th century, some families would have had a special pre-Christmas celebration today, in honor of St. Nicholas Day.
Dec. 6 was an important children’s holiday, when kids would leave empty shoes for St. Nick to fill and put out straw and carrots for his horse.
The Van Cortlandt House marks St. Nicholas’s Day today and tomorrow with “Music for St. Nicholas,” a series of concerts celebrating the legend of that right jolly old elf.
It’s a good excuse to visit this rustic Colonial plantation house, which was built in 1748 and served as a Revolutionary War military headquarters for George Washington.
$5. Today and tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
421 E. 61st St., between First and York avenues; (212) 838-6878.
This Federal-style home was built in 1799 for Abigail Adams, the daughter of President John Adams, but in the 1820s, it became a popular hotel and getaway for city dwellers from New York, which at that time only extended to 14th Street.
At Christmas, Manhattanites would come up to ride on sleighs in the front yard. That’s not possible now, but you can check out the eight restored rooms and its beautiful well-maintained gardens.
The house will be open for candlelit tours Dec. 18, 19 and 20, and the tours include live musicians, as well as hot cider and eggnog (with a splash of “holiday cheer”) in the hotel’s historic Tavern Room ($12).
$3. Today and tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Morris-Jumel Mansion
65 Jumel Terrace at W. 160th St.; (212) 923-8008.
When Alexander Hamilton’s old adversary Aaron Burr lived in this 1765 Georgian mansion, the oldest in New York, he and his wife hosted their holiday parties in the house’s posh “octagonal room.”
You can get a taste of the old days Dec. 13 at 2 p.m., when the Morris-Jumel mansion uses the room for its annual Christmas concert of Baroque holiday music by Bach, Telemann and others. The mansion’s holiday party takes place right afterward and is invitation-only, but if you buy the $15 concert ticket, you can stay on.
Otherwise, the house is open as usual, decorated with greens, pinecones and other natural holiday decorations that were common in 1776, when George Washington spent a couple months here.
$3. Today and tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
