Pierre Samuel du Pont, the shrewd scion of prominent Delaware industrialists, was well on his way to growing the family business in 1906 when he wondered whether his impulsive purchase of some country real estate was a boneheaded investment.

“I have recently experienced what I would formerly have diagnosed as an attack of insanity; that is, I have purchased a small farm,” he wrote to a friend after acquiring a modest Quaker farmhouse on a lovely, wooded tract near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Its aged trees were destined for the sawmill, hence du Pont’s intervention. The plan for this visionary nature-lover’s real estate lark? Spare the forest and renovate the property, making it a place where he could entertain his friends.

Du Pont realized his ambitions—and then some. This time of year, nearly half a million guests visit his now-1,100-acre legacy, Longwood Gardens, to behold the Brandywine Valley’s crown jewel of holiday displays.

Longwood is one of several du Pont estates gracing the pastoral countryside northwest of Wilmington, Delaware, the city where the first du Ponts arrived from France in 1800. As they amassed considerable fortunes, various family members erected country mansions, filled them with fine art and furnishings, and surrounded them with magnificent gardens they often designed themselves. In the 20th century, Brandywine Valley’s first family of industry and philanthropy began bequeathing many of these post-Gilded Age oases for public enjoyment as museums, gardens, and nature preserves.

A land of rolling hills, misty meadows, split-rail fences, and old stone buildings, this corner of southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware draws visitors galore for its seasonal floral and foliage displays, but the landscape and its historic estates also make a compelling winter destination, as so captured by the region’s famous native son, painter Andrew Wyeth.

What better antidote to last year’s muted festivities than a dose of spare-no-expense celebration in vallée du Pont? Throughout December, get a glimpse into the region’s one percent, who decorate their homes for a season of aristocratic entertaining.

The valley cradles Brandywine Creek (aka the Brandywine River), which rambles from its southeastern PA headwaters to a rendezvous with the Christina River in Wilmington. A 12-mile national scenic by- way weaves through the area, linking historic du Pont properties and picturesque small towns offering tony shopping and diverse dining in the city’s suburbs and exurbs. One such town is Greenville, which happens to be the home of another prominent Delaware family—the First Family of the United States, Joe and Jill Biden.

Born in Pennsylvania coal country, “Middle-Class Joe” did well for himself politically and financially in the state that he represented in the U.S. Senate for over three decades. His first Greenville residence was once owned by a du Pont, albeit a five-bed- room “fixer-upper” slated for demolition. Biden has since upgraded his residences—in the Nation’s Capital and in Greenville—but not his average-Joe persona. The President and FLOTUS like to frequent beloved sandwich and burger joints around the First State when they’re in town.

A two-hour drive from Baltimore via I-95 and U.S. 1, Longwood Gardens provides a striking jump-off point into the valley’s historic and natural attractions. Other du Pont properties are clustered nearby across the state line in Delaware.

Like the delectable fungus for which Kennett Square is known, Pierre du Pont’s “small farm” mushroomed into a grand horticultural showcase. Today, it’s a wonderland of formal and informal gardens, meadows, woodlands, and a pair of du Pont-designed flourishes—a four-acre, 20-room conservatory, and a five-acre, Italianate fountain garden.

Once the conservatory was completed in 1921, du Pont and his wife, Alice, began hosting Christmas parties there for estate employees and their families. Longwood began celebrating the holiday publicly in 1957, expanding and enhancing “A Longwood Christmas” to the extent that decorating now begins in late summer.

Carpeted in cyclamens, poinsettias, and fragrant paperwhites, the conservatory beckons guests through room after room of twinkling Christmas trees, floral sculptures, and arbors dripping with lighted evergreens. (A drone video offered virtual visitors a tour last year, but it can’t compare to the full sensory experience.) Outside, illuminated trees, glowing orbs, sparkling “snowflakes,” and a tunnel of lights brighten brisk winter evenings as guests warm themselves with hot cocoa around fire pits, now through January 9.

Don’t Miss: The always-imaginatively decorated Music Room and its 18-foot fir tree, the popular Garden Railway featuring Thomas the Tank Engine, and dazzling performances in the Fountain Garden. Locally: Four miles southwest of Longwood sits Kennett Square, whose surrounding farms provide half the nation’s mushrooms. Sample this singular crop at Portabellos, a local favorite. Buy fresh and dried mushrooms, plus mushroom souvenirs, growing kits, and cookbooks at The Mushroom Cap.

Henry Francis du Pont was born at Winterthur and inherited the family’s Delaware estate he so enjoyed exploring as a child. In du Pont’s adulthood, the house and its sprawling grounds became the playground for his twin passions: collecting and gardening. By the time the estate opened publicly in 1951, its owner had expanded Winterthur into a 175-room mansion, filled it with the nation’s finest collection of decorative arts, and personally designed the 1,000 acres of gardens, meadows, and woodlands that delight visitors today. Du Pont and his wife, Ruth, owned three other homes, but Winterthur is where they celebrated the holidays with their daughters and friends. “Yuletide at Winterthur” affords visitors a peek at their glittering lifestyle: polished silver and sparkling crystal; floral arrangements and fine antiques; swagged greenery on the Hollywoodesque staircase; and a towering conservatory Christmas tree.

Visit the estate on Wednesday evenings through January 2 to tour the decorated mansion, listen to live jazz, and toast marshmallows and Champagne. Take a guided tram ride through the winter garden, stopping at the Enchanted Woods, a grove of stately oaks guarding the thatch-roofed Faerie Cottage.

Don’t Miss: The conservatory’s stunning 15-foot tree composed of dried flowers, live performances of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens’ great-great-grandson (Dec. 8-9), and an 18-room dollhouse filled with Lilliputian antiques and holiday decor. Locally: Centreville, Delaware, a way-stop on historic Kennett Pike, lies less than two miles from Winterthur. Grab breakfast all day at the Centreville Café before visiting the du Pont mansion-turned-museum. Decorate your own castle with contemporary and antique finds from shops like Adorn Goods, The Beehive, and Found.

Alfred I. du Pont, Samuel’s great-great grandson, loved showering his beloved second wife, Alicia, with gifts. The grandest was Nemours Estate, the opulent Wilmington mansion into which the newlyweds moved in 1910. Named for the du Pont ancestral home in France, the then-3,000-acre estate was everything Alicia adored: a Delaware chateau designed in the style of Louis XVI with formal gardens and a reflecting pool modeled after Versailles. The couple furnished Nemours with dazzling chandeliers, rare oriental rugs, and an impressive collection of original paintings. The du Ponts decorated for the holidays with equal opulence, inviting family, friends, and estate employees to celebrate with them.

Today, “Holidays at Nemours” welcomes the public to a Francophiles’ fantasy Christmas: marble mantels draped in garlands of flowers, greenery, and many of the du Ponts’ original Christmas decorations, including a rare, late 19th-century German crèche. On December Saturdays prior to Christmas, the estate extends its hours into the evening.

Don’t Miss: Ornaments hand-decorated by patients at the Nemours Children’s Hospital, which occupies part of the estate’s grounds, hand-blown glass on the mansion’s trees, and twin elk statues guarding the grounds.

For the last stop on your tour, visit the oldest of the family’s American estates, located just west of Nemours. Built in 1802 for Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, a gunpowder manufacturer, Eleutherian Mills perches on a hill overlooking the company’s first gunpowder yard on the banks of Brandywine Creek. The estate housed not only five generations of the du Pont family, but the first DuPont Company headquarters.

Today, they’re part of the larger Hagley Museum and Library, a Smithsonian affiliate, dedicated to the study of American business, technology, and innovation. The 235-acre museum complex includes restored mills, a workers’ village, and du Pont’s preserved Georgian-style home and gardens, where E.I. practiced botany. In early September, severe flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida extensively damaged the mill yard and lower half of the property, but the house, gardens, and library reopened shortly afterward. That means guests will be able to enjoy “Home for the Holidays,” with a celebratory family theme. Six of the residence’s 12 rooms will be dressed festively, much as its owners would have done in the 1920s when E.I.’s preservation-minded great-granddaughter, Louise, and her yachtsman husband, Frank Crowninshield, lived there.

Don’t Miss: Home-sweet-homes crafted by local families for Hagley’s annual gingerbread house competition through January 2, plus December twilight tours, a rare opportunity to see the festively decorated, softly lit Eleutherian Mills at its finest. Locally: The Hagley Museum and Nemours both sit on the eastern outskirts of Greenville, a popular shopping and dining destination for locals, including the First Family. The Bidens frequent Janssen’s gourmet grocery, where they breakfast with the grandkids, and PureBread Deli, whose savory house sandwiches are named for dog breeds. Pizza by Elizabeth’s, another local favorite, plays delicious name games, too, titling pies for celebrity Elizabeths (Taylor, Queen) and Bettys (Davis, Boop). Shoppers can satisfy holiday needs with artisan-made jewelry and clothing at Bloom, and fanciful gift wrap and cards from Whimsy.

On the banks of Brandywine Creek near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, sits the Brandywine River Museum of Art, the pet project of a latter-day member of this illustrious family. Best known for its collection of art by the revered Wyeth family, the museum is noted also for popular holiday displays, including the O-gauge Brandywine model railroad and an atrium-tall evergreen festooned with “critter” ornaments handmade from natural materials. Closed due to Hurricane Ida flooding, the museum and its holiday plans remained in limbo at press time.

Poor Delaware. The “First State” has long had a rather lukewarm rap, with its intrigue for tourists perhaps most memorably captured in 1992’s Wayne’s World, where the boys sum up the excitement of various states. “Delaware!” exclaims Wayne with a puzzled look. “Hi…I’m in…Delaware…”

But Maryland’s tiny neighbor is actually a small wonder—once the state’s actual nickname—and one that’s likely to soon be discovered, thanks in part to the hometown pride of America’s 46th president, Joe Biden.

“I am proud,” said Biden, before departing for his inauguration in January. “Proud, proud, proud to be a son of Delaware.”

Less than an hour’s drive to the state line from Baltimore, Delaware is much more than just the 20 miles of I-95 you drive through on the way to Pennsylvania.

The second-smallest state—actually part of Maryland for some 50 years in the 1600s—features plenty of reasons to visit, from college-town charm to metropolitan buzz to a long, winding portion of the Delmarva peninsula that provides ample access to some of the best beaches on the Atlantic Coast.

So pack up the car, or purchase a train ticket. Of course, ice cream is encouraged along the way.

→ CITY CENTER

For many, a trip to Delaware begins and ends at the old Amtrak station on the edge of the Christina River in downtown Wilmington.

Built in 1907, the majestic brick building has become most famous for one particular passenger, “Amtrak Joe,” as he came to be known, with Biden using the railroad as his primary form of transportation to and from Washington, D.C., during his decades as a senator and eventually vice president—so much so that they named the station in his honor.

But the short ride from Baltimore’s Penn Station only takes 45 minutes, with impressive views over the Susquehanna River to boot. On our last visit, we detrained onto one of the old, un-remodeled platforms, fit with vintage tile floors, long wooden benches, and a chandeliered ceiling—a glimpse into the golden age of American travel.

Wilmington—the state’s largest city, with a population of 70,000—is also a mix of past and present, grit and gumption, with a revitalizing waterfront and bustling business district featuring renowned restaurants and striking architecture spanning the centuries.

Market Street is the main thoroughfare, where hallowed venues like the Grand Opera House and the Queen, a block over, offer post-COVID concerts in historic settings. The nearby Hotel DuPont is an iconic structure, Wilmington’s first skyscraper circa 1913, where luxury suites and a stunning Versailles-like ballroom mark the legacy of its namesake family—the Rockefellers of Delaware.

While you’re downtown, consider dinner at James Beard Award semi-finalist (and Biden favorite) Bardea, which offers innovative Italian fare, followed by craft cocktails at Merchant Bar. For breakfast, find a locally roasted coffee at one of Brew Haha!’s beloved quirky cafes, then try lunch at El Diablo Burritos for tortillas stuffed with braised short-rib or citrus-seared mahi, before burning it all off at the riverfront.

The Christina River, a tributary of the larger Delaware River, runs along the southern edge of the city, and has served as the lifeblood of its recent renaissance. A 1.3-mile promenade follows the water, with access to several picturesque detours, like the Jack A. Markell Trail or the Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge, that cut through verdant marshland, as well as attractions like the Delaware Children’s Museum, an interactive learn-and-play space for kids, or Frawley Stadium, the home field of the minor league Blue Rocks baseball team.

Perhaps the neighborhood’s best-kept secret, though, is the Delaware Contemporary, a leading visual arts museum, which recently exhibited large-scale works by Baltimore’s own Theresa Chromati.

Before you move on, take a short drive north into the Brandywine Valley to walk the magnificent gardens of the Nemours Estate or Winterthur Museum, home to late du Ponts, or sleep stylishly at the Inn at Montchanin Village, with its luxe countryside spa and accompanying eatery, Krazy Kat’s, which serves up brunch among oil paintings of noble felines.

But don’t overlook the no-frills fare at Charcoal Pit on Concord Pike, a classic 1950s burger joint known for its homemade milkshakes, where pictures of Joe and Barack Obama hang on the walls. Even still, there’s always a sub at Capriotti’s, launched in Wilmington in 1976, and dubbed by Biden “the best sandwich in America.”

→ SCHOOL SPIRIT

Biden might be the University of Delaware’s most famous alum, but he’s followed closely by Joe Flacco, who played college football there before joining the Ravens in 2008. Football games are still a big lure for sports-lovers across the state, who flock to the Newark campus, where boisterous tailgate parties take place in the stadium’s parking lot. The team’s Colonial Athletic Association affiliation also faces them off against the likes of our own Towson University.

About 20 minutes south of Wilmington, not far from the Maryland line, the school’s home base is a quaint and classic college town. The campus’ lush, central green is surrounded by Georgian classroom buildings, and its leafy downtown is studded with local boutiques and bistros, typically bustling with students and professors in a non-COVID year.

Amble down Main Street for a vinyl treasure trove at Rainbow Records, cute home goods and gifts at Grassroots, and all the Delaware swag you could possibly dream of at the National 5 & 10.

For locally made brews, try Iron Hill Brewery for regional classics, or the small-batch, experimental suds of the more recently opened Autumn Archer Beer Project. Follow them with creative vegetarian fare at Home Grown Café or homemade pastas at Caffe Gelato. Just save room for dessert at the on-campus UD Creamery, which sells ice cream made with the milk of cows cared for by the schools’ College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

For more scenic recreation, head 10 minutes north of town to White Clay Creek State Park, a sprawling greenspace for freshwater fishing, hiking, biking, and birding in a woodland setting, best accompanied by a copy of The Delaware Naturalist Handbook, written by UD professor and Baltimore resident McKay Jenkins.

While you’re up there, we recommend a quick hop into Pennsylvania for two of our top regional attractions: Longwood Gardens, featuring more than a thousand acres of botanical wonders, and the Brandywine River Museum of Art, home to an impressive collection of works by N.C. and Andrew Wyeth.

→ DOWNY OCEAN

Of course, many Marylanders have already spent a fair amount of time in Delaware, drawn to the several sandy beach towns that are located an hour and a half south of Newark and Wilmington down Route 1, or two hours from Baltimore across the Bay Bridge.

There’s Bethany, Fenwick, and Dewey, but Rehoboth is undoubtedly the most popular destination, with its nostalgic boardwalk and family-friendly shops without the hubub of nearby Ocean City. It was nicknamed “the Nation’s Summer Capital” in the 1920s, when newly paved roads opened the community to D.C. residents, and, today, Biden owns a beach house there, making it likely the next presidential Hyannis Port or Mar-a-Lago.

Unsurprisingly, the beachside boutiques are now filled with Biden swag, from candles to coffee mugs, and a scramble down Rehoboth Avenue toward the mile-long boardwalk to snag your own is a requisite. Along the way, swing into Browseabout Books, an independent stalwart with more than 35,000 titles, and Ryan’s Surf Shop, a circa-1961 spot for beach gear and boogie boards (not to mention a round of mini golf on the roof upstairs).

But we all know the reason we come to the beach: the junk food—from pizza slices, via Grotto’s, a go-to local chain born in Rehoboth, or Nicola, a seminal pie palace since 1971, to ice cream cones, be it frozen custard at Kohr Brothers or hand-dipped scoops at the Royal Treat. Road snacks abound for the ride home, too, at Dolles (saltwater taffy), Fisher’s (Old Bay caramel popcorn), and Thrasher’s (with vinegar, duh).

For a sit-down meal, a seat at the bar at Henlopen City Oyster House is our go-to for craft beers, fresh-shucked shellfish, and the best fried clams we’ve had. But don’t roll out of town without a spin in the teacups at Funland (preferably before you eat).

If we had our druthers, we’d spend most of the time in lesser-known Lewes, a cozy hamlet near the Tangier Outlets (tax-free shopping!) where the Delaware River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Somehow, thus far, the little historic downtown has remained largely untouched by the kitschy commercialization of its touristy neighbors, and is mostly frequented by local residents and weekenders passing through on their way to or from the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. Visit the Station on Kings as you head into town for farm chic home goods and decadent desserts, as well as the Historic Lewes Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, considered one of the best on the peninsula.

In town, make a dinner reservation at the adorably decorated James Beard semifinalist Heirloom before dropping your bags at the hip Dogfish Head Inn. (Or your tent at the Cape Henlopen State Park, one the Mid-Atlantic’s best-kept-secret campgrounds, with plenty of nature—particularly along the Junction & Breakwater Trail—for non-campers to also enjoy.)

But back to Dogfish Head, because no trip would be complete without a final pit stop at this king of craft beer, with the Wonka-like brewery and tasting room just 15 minutes from Lewes, founded by local beer wizard Sam Calagione in 1995. Order one of their dozens of exclusive pints, lean back on their outdoor patio, and raise a glass to Delaware. Small Wonder, indeed.