Once again, it didn’t take long for the Historical Christmas Dinner at Fort Robinson State Park to sell out all 200 tickets. Tickets for the December 1st dinner went on sale at the park and in Chadron and Harrison this morning at 8:00, and were sold out in 22 minutes.

Assistant Park Superintendent Deb Kennedy is used to the tickets going quickly, but the speed of today’s sales still surprised her a bit.

Kennedy says it took about 45-minutes to sell out last year, but this year the park office was out of tickets in 11-minutes. Sales in Chadron and Harrison were halted at that time with 1 ticket left in both towns, and those were gone as soon as phone sales opened at 8:20.

This is the 18th year for the Historical Christmas Dinner, which recreates a menu from a Christmas dinner served at Fort Robinson when it was an active military post.

This year’s menu is from the 1933 Christmas dinner…which includes roast turkey with White House dressing, snowflake potatoes, creamed peas, Westchester corn, candied sweet potatoes; fruit salad, cranberry sauce, fruit cake and pumpkin pie.

Kennedy isn’t sure why the event, which encourages guests to dress in period attire, is so popular, but thinks the historic nature of Fort Robinson and the use of authentic military menus are part of the reason.

The dinner is a cooperative project of the park, the Nebraska State Historical Museum, and the northern Panhandle area…with guests encouraged to dress in period attire, in this case, the early 1930s. Kennedy thinks that’s one reason the event is so popular.

Fort Robinson is still looking for organizations and individuals interested in decorating historical buildings at the park for Christmas…when many of the buildings get blankets of lights. Kennedy says anyone interested in helping with Christmas lights at Fort Robinson can call the park office at 308-665-2900 for more information.