Waterdrinker Family Farm in Manorville offering vintage Airstream experience
A vintage holiday scene has unfolded at Waterdrinker Family Farm & Garden in Manorville this season, as the farm offers its first Airstream Winter Wonderland.
Four iconic rounded, silver Airstream trailers, first manufactured in the 1930s, have been decked out with old-fashioned wooden skis, snowshoes and ice skates, along with sleds and holiday wreaths. Visitors can peek inside three of the trailers that feature holiday decorations such as a replica of the famed “Christmas Story” leg lamp, miniature electronic tabletop fireplaces and pillows with sayings such as “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” The fourth trailer is a gift shop that sells s’mores ingredients for $3 for a package of two that visitors can make on the spot over an outdoor fire, hot cocoa and holiday trinkets.
“I’d like to see kids put down their iPads and cellphones and come outside, roast marshmallows and have hot chocolate,” says Wayne Weiss, a farm co-owner who created the village from Airstreams he collects and restores as a hobby. Ironically, the idea for the Airstream project came from an Instagram photo, he says. “I had seen an inspirational photo of a Christmas village that had a bunch of Airstreams in an Airstream park. Vintage is all big right now,” he says. “Everyone says it’s like an old-fashioned tree lot.”
The Airstreams are grouped around a fire pit that is surrounded with rustic wood benches; lyrics from classic Christmas songs play on the outdoor sound system as clips of well-loved holiday movies play silently on a screen. After sunset, colorful holiday lights illuminate the area. The farm has also set up various settings for Instagram photos, including a red Santa sleigh and an enormous wreath that visitors can pose inside. During certain hours, Santa is available for photos as well inside the farm’s greenhouse. And of course, the farm’s Christmas trees, poinsettias, wreaths, centerpieces and more are for sale.
“We just wanted to provide a holiday experience,” says managerMarc Weiss. While entering the greenhouse and tree area is free, it’s $5 per person to enter the Airstream village; children younger than 2 are free.
Jen Giordano, 30, who owns an Etsy boutique, toasted marshmallows with her daughter, Juliana, 4, on a recent afternoon. “We drive by every day and she’s been asking every day if we can come,” Jen says of her daughter. “It’s so cute.”
The farm is at 663 Wading River Rd., Manorville. The farm is open noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, noon to 8 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. The Airstream village will be open through Dec. 21. For more information, call 631-878-8653, or visit water-drinker.com. Santa’s hours are posted on the website; snapping photos with Santa is free.
Jen Giordano and her daughter, Juliana, 4, make s'mores at the Airstream Winter Wonderland at Waterdrinker Family Farm & Garden in Manorville. Credit: Newsday/Beth Whitehouse
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
