The Ximenez-Fatio House Museum in historic St. Augustine will be participating in this year’s 7th Annual Fiesta de Aviles with Spanish heritage, art, and music to be featured during weekend events. The House and Museum activities will be included in St. Augustine celebrations with local business owners, live music and dancing, and art and food, plus a twist on the Spanish custom where local and visitors are chased by special guests in “bull” costumes in a sprint down historic Aviles Street. The activities are based on the centuries old Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

Also the Ximenez-Fatio House and Museum will participate in the 23rd Annual St. Augustine Historic Inns Bed & Breakfast Holiday Tour to benefit the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine. The Lightner is a not for profit organization whose mission is to preserve, maintain, research and interpret a vast collection of historic artifacts for the educational benefit of the visiting public. For more information about the tour and to purchase tickets, visit the website at www.staugustinebandbtour.com.

According to Julie Vaill Gatlin, the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum’s Executive Director, bed and breakfast tour guests will take a self-guided visit through the 16-room, two story lifestyle museum which depicts one of the earliest boarding houses in St. Augustine.
Each bedroom will display a specific motif to reflect the typical guests such as a Sea Captain, Military Officer, a ‘frail’ lady, and a family traveling with children, to name a few. Research and preparation provided by NSCDA-FL member volunteers will showcase the house as it would have looked during a mid-1800’s Christmas with native greenery including magnolia, long leaf pine, and sand pine along with red cedar, coontie and palmetto palms, Palatka holly, Spanish moss, and ivy, to name a few. Winter squash, oranges, pumpkins, pomegranates, red and green cabbage, kale, seashells, pine cones and nuts will also be used as holiday adornments. Bayberry candles will light the rooms to augment the natural light.

The property is regularly available to artists, re-enactors and historians during First Friday Art Walks, Plein Air painting events and local festivals, among many others. The efforts support the Dames’ public outreach and mission which promotes the nation’s national heritage through historic preservation, patriotic service and educational projects.