BERLIN, Md. — Even the most Scrooge-like among us long for Christmas passed. Few can resist, if only for one sentimental day, the desire to travel back in time to experience an old-fashioned Christmas.
While you can’t time travel, you can do the next best thing. Berlin, Maryland, is a tiny hamlet (population, less than 3,500) about ten minutes from Ocean City. It provides a backdrop so cozy, small town-y and warm that it could be a movie set. And, in fact, it was — for two movies: Runaway Bride, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, where it was depicted as the epitome of charming small town life and Tuck Everlasting, a Disney film about a boy’s immortality set in 19th century America.
Berlin is known for its walkable downtown with historic storefronts along Main Street that are authentic and well-preserved without being cutesy. This is very much a living and working town, so little burger joints and vacuum cleaner repair shops are side by side with antiques stores, galleries and women’s clothing boutiques.
Each December, the town comes together to celebrate Christmas in a big, and, yes, old-fashioned way. Berlin’s Victorian Christmas is celebrated every weekend leading up to Christmas. There are complimentary horse-drawn carriage rides, visits from Santa Claus, demos by local blacksmiths, and even quickie ornament making classes at Jeffrey Auxer Designs, the town’s glass-blowing studio.
Full immersion into Berlin’s Victorian Christmas must include an overnight stay at The Atlantic Hotel. Built in 1895, this brick front hotel is the located at the epi-center of town. It decks the halls, mantles and mirrors with greenery, red ribbons and twinkling lights.
Carriage rides in Berlin/Image The Atlantic Hotel
Lacking a downstairs lobby, guests are encouraged to congregate in the small second story drawing room that offers views of the downtown streetscape.
If, like the actor Billy Bob Thorton, you harbor a phobia about antiques, this isn’t your hotel. Tufted velvet chairs, Oriental carpets, marble-topped tables, and heavy drapes ensure you are transported back to the hotel’s Victorian heyday.
Rarely do you get to lounge amid history like this. Normally, a rope in a museum would cordon off a room this well curated.
There are 16 guest rooms and one stand-alone early 19th century house called the Gardener’s Cottage. Each is unique. Some rooms are sprawling and include kitchens for longer stays; others accommodate custom-made king beds crafted from iron; others provide compact nooks, perfect for single travelers. The hotel has gone to great pains to get period details, like the heavy cut crystal water glasses and the framed 19th century photographs, right.
The room my five-year-old daughter and I stayed in (Room #10) featured an inviting Victorian sofa, a marble-topped dresser and a carved footstool that made easy work of ascending the high four poster bed that was dressed in crisp white linens and topped with six fluffy pillows.
Room # 10 at The Atlantic Hotel/Image Atlantic Hotel
Most bathrooms feature cast iron claw foot tubs. They may not beckon to sore muscles like a Jacuzzi might, but they hit entirely the right note for the property and may give some guests the first retro soak of their lives.
There are modern concessions at The Atlantic, but they are discreet. There’s an elevator tucked at the back of the hotel; the phone was hidden behind a potted palm in my room; and a highly responsive individual heating and cooling unit was built into the wall above the door. A mahogany armoire housed my flat screen, which I never turned on. How could I? I was completely lost in time, embracing the bygone era by raiding the communal stash of books — everything from bodice busters to the Bible to The South Beach Diet — offered for loan in the hallway bookcase.
Berlin comes to life slowly in the morning. From your perch at The Atlantic you will witness the hush of sunrise slowly evaporate as shopkeepers unlock their doors, hang vibrant Welcome flags and gather on the sidewalk over mugs of hot coffee to swap gossip of the day.
One note: You cannot get breakfast, nor even morning coffee at The Atlantic Hotel despite the fact that there is a restaurant called Drummer’s Café downstairs. (The restaurant doesn’t open until noon). Luckily for caffeine fiends like me, this is easy remedied by walking across the hotel parking lot to the Berlin Coffee House, which sells multiple roasts, as well as freshly baked goodies like coffee cake muffins and pumpkin bread.
Fortified and warmed, you’re now ready to hit the quant streets of Berlin for some strolling, early holiday shopping and, if you’re lucky, some impromptu caroling that locals have been known to strike up when the spirit moves them. Hard to think of a better way to kick off the season.
An inveterate traveler, Andrea Poe writes frequently about travel for national and international publications. You can email Andrea at andcpoe at gmail dot com or follow her travel notes as andpoe on Twitter. She is also editor of Food & Travel at The Washington Times Communities
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