Any time of year is ideal to visit the pristine Georgia barrier island that’s preserved as a state park. Jekyll Island contains hotels, shopping and attractions but it’s also one of the finest examples of environmental preservation on the Georgia coast, with maritime forests, wildlife roaming free and the picturesque Driftwood Beach. It’s also home to amazing history, with the Jekyll Island Club that attracted the wealthy of the late 19th century and early 20th, site of the first transcontinental telephone call and the birth of the Federal Reserve.
Visit any time, but this month the island glows with more than 1.5 million lights adorning its sleepy live oak trees and historic buildings and the Jekyll Island Club offers lots of holiday events.
Jekyll Island Club History
Island residents Newton Finney and John Eugene DuBignon imagined a private hunting club for the nation’s wealthiest individuals, millionaires wishing to escape the cold up north. They opened the Jekyll Island Club in 1886, selling memberships for an event-filled season that ran from Jan. 1 through March 31. Munsey’s Magazine called the property, “the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world.” The hotel expanded over the years and several members built “cottages” that remain today. Today, the hotel remains an elegant experience.
Holiday High Tea
During the club’s heyday, members took all three meals in the majestic Grand Dining Room, then retired to other elegant rooms of the hotel for amusements. During December, the Jekyll Island Club offers Holiday High Tea in the dining room with scones, pastries, finger sandwiches and the like and ending with a custom holiday favor. A special High Tea by the Sea in sections facing the sleepy Jekyll River will include a keepsake ornament on Dec. 15.
Holiday Events for the Kids
Special events this month for children at the Jekyll Island Club include a screening of the holiday film “The Polar Express” Dec. 4, Breakfast with the Grinch Dec. 14 and Lunch with Santa in the Grand Dining Room on Dec. 21, the perfect opportunity for family photos. The property also rents bicycles and the nearby museum features trolley tours. Be sure to visit the Georgia Sea Turtle Center next door, where turtles are rehabilitated and returned to the wild.
Holiday Events for Adults
A special holiday concert will be performed by the Savannah College of Arts and Design vocal ensemble on Dec. 7, a five-course Christmas Eve dinner will be held in the Grand Dining Room and on New Year’s Eve relive the Club’s heyday and dress up Gatsby style for the Great Gatsby New Year’s Eve Party.
Jekyll Ocean Club
The resort includes the more modern Jekyll Ocean Club located on the island’s Atlantic side. The AAA Four Diamond luxury resort includes 40 suites with ocean views, pool deck and the Eighty Ocean Kitchen and Bar serving up unique takes on Southern favorites married with coastal cuisine. Don’t miss Chef Hector Rosano’s wood oven-roasted shrimp, skillet cornbread and fresh seafood entrees such as the grilled red fish over ginger creamed corn.
Island Events
Island-wide events include the Winter Carnival and Big Truck Roundup on Great Dunes Beach Dec. 7, the Holiday Light Parade with Santa and friends on Dec. 14 and the drive-in movie screening of “Frosty the Snowman” on Dec. 22 and 29.
Or come back in January and February when unique glass balls created by artists from around the country are hidden throughout the island every day. Whoever finds these unique glass globes may keep them. For more information, visit jekyllisland.com
