Step back in time with culinary historian Becky Libourel Diamond, as she returns to Ventfort Hall to talk about her newest book, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook. A tea featuring some of the treats from her new cookbook will follow her talk. The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook bridges the past and present, bringing back sugar plums and other confections not typically found in modern cookbooks, while revisiting some beloved favorites. Although most Americans have heard of sugar plums thanks to the famous holiday poem A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore, many have likely never have had the pleasure of tasting one of these luxuries, or even know what they really are (hint: they are not sugar-dusted plums). This is because sugar plums are one of the Gilded Age era holiday sweets that got eclipsed as America moved into the twentieth century.