Yesterday I wrote about our visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts — but the museum is only half of our outing.

Downtown Stockbridge is a destination in itself, especially at this time of year when the charming establishments on Main Street are decked out for the holidays.

Norman Rockwell depicts this setting in minute detail in his painting “Main Street”, right down to the christmas tree on the second floor of the Stockbridge General Store. Here is a shot of the painting I snapped in the museum, with arrows pointing to the real-life buildings:

Lunch is a top priority following our visit to the museum, so we stop at the General Store’s Main Street Cafe for a bite to eat. They have a great menu with lots of options and all four of us leave full and satisfied.

Here’s a few snaps from our walk around town… can you feel the holiday spirit through your screen?

This building is now a Yankee Candle store:

The Red Lion Inn sits at the far end of Main Street. This establishment dates back to 1773, and remarkably it’s maintained its look quite well — stepping inside is like jumping back in time to the eighteenth century.

Decór inside the Red Lion Inn:

There are even two phone booths lined with Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post covers:

Next we wander through the neighborhood off of Main Street, admiring homes that date back several centuries.

I pop into Stockbridge Coffee & Tea and enjoy a latte with their homemade mint syrup.

There is a small bookshop adjacent to the coffee joint:

I very much enjoy our visit to Stockbridge, but I missed the real action here by one week — a once-a-year event took place the previous weekend on this very street when the town recreates the classic Norman Rockwell painting “Main Street” featured at the top of this post. They arrange for the exact make and model of the cars from that painting to take their place on Main Street, and then shut down the center of town so it’s exclusively old vehicles. Here is a closer look at the original painting:

My dad has loved cars since he was a little boy and when he and my mom found out about this photo recreation with classic cars, they decided to drive up to Stockbridge a week early even though we had a family trip planned for the following weekend. My mom kindly shared her photos with me so I could round out this blog post with coverage of Stockbridge’s historic event. So all of the remaining photos were snapped by my mom, Karen Meyer, and edited by me.

Here’s the General Store a week earlier. (I’m not going to attempt to name the make or models of each car.)

I’m so impressed with the detail that went into planning this — see that red car with the tree strapped to the roof in front of the Red Lion Inn?

Here it is a recreation in 2015:

Note the tiny houses in the rear window of this vehicle:

Santa even made an appearance:

More elements of holiday cheer… horse-drawn carriages followed by carolers in costume:

My dad, in all his glory:

Thanks for sharing your photos, Mom!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this look at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. I’ve driven through here once in the summertime and it looked totally different, albeit just as bucolic. I bet it’d be pretty in the snow too. In fact, there are a number of similar towns and villages worth visiting in the Berkshires — I look forward to making a return trip in the future.

Merry almost Christmas!