Christmas In Yosemite

In the decades since the Ahwanee was built, the lodge has hosted numerous dignitaries, including the Obama family in 2016. Rooms there start at $376 per night.

But back in the 1920s, in the early days of the Parks Service, it was conceived of as a way to convince travelers that they could enjoy the beauty of nature without sacrificing comfort.

Still, the hotel’s operators knew that getting visitors to the Ahwanee in winter would be a challenge. (This would have been before all-wheel drive.)

So the hotel’s operators came up with an idea.

Why not stage a holiday pageant? Guests could dress up in their finery, stay at the hotel, and, in a glowing banquet hall with soaring views of Yosemite Valley, watch some light, Yuletide-themed performances and listen to carols.

And that, Andrea Fulton told me recently, is how the “Bracebridge Dinner” was born.

“It’s a four-hour, totally captivating theatrical holiday experience,” Ms. Fulton said. “It’s about the warmth and the spirit of the season.”

She’d know: Ms. Fulton’s father, Eugene Fulton, a choral conductor in San Francisco, was brought on to be the production’s musical director in 1934. Ms. Fulton’s mother worked as the chorus’s accompanist.

Ms. Fulton made her debut as a villager at age 5, in 1950.

Their boss in the endeavor? Ansel Adams, who helped write the script, starred in the show each year and ran the pageant from 1929 to 1973.

Andrea Fulton on Christmas Eve in 1950.Ansel Adams

“We used to rehearse at my home, so Ansel would come to my house,” she said. He was a larger than life persona, sure, but Ms. Fulton recalled being “entranced” by the photographer’s full beard.

In 1979, after her father died of a heart attack, Ms. Fulton took over as producer and director.

Like any millennial girl who enjoyed reading, I had seen the “Gilmore Girls” episode “The Bracebridge Dinner,” but I had no idea that it was a real tradition, let alone rooted in California — not some tiny New England town.

So just before her 40th season as the production’s leader and her 69th year as a performer, I talked with Ms. Fulton about how the tradition has shifted over the years.

And a little while ago, a photographer and I drove up to Yosemite for a behind-the-scenes look, which we’ll share with you tomorrow.