The holiday season brings an intangible warm and fuzzy feeling.
In German, they actually have a word for it: “gemütlichkeit.”
And though it’s not a holiday film, the “gemütlichkeit” is palpable in “The Sound of Music,” one of the most successful movie musicals of all time. The 1965 film is based on the memoir of Baroness Maria von Trapp, iconically portrayed by Julie Andrews.
“It means warm, cozy, professional, but not pretentious hospitality,” Kristina said in a recent interview with NTD, a sister outlet of The Epoch Times, in the resort’s library on Nov. 30. “So that’s really the goal of us inviting people to come here to enjoy it.”
Her brother Sam said: “Singing is also always a big part of the holiday. For our family, having been professional singers, on Christmas Eve, when we sing with our guests, that’s just a really pure, fun evening for everyone.
Later that evening, Sam was in his element—the full embodiment of “gemütlichkeit.” He was wearing a cozy sweater and Austrian-inspired vest, a glowing smile, and a twinkle in his eyes.
The siblings and their staff had just successfully concluded their annual Christmas tree lighting, complete with cookies, hot cocoa, caroling, and gathering around the fire.
Mother Nature delivered a picturesque blanket of snow, which continued to gently fall as a folksy guitar-strumming vocalist led hotel guests, locals, and the staff in singing holiday standards such as “White Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and, of course, “Silent Night.”
Fleeing the Nazis, Singing on the Road, and Settling in Vermont
The family’s story portrayed in “The Sound of Music” is mostly correct, though many of the details are not accurate.“We often joked that the personalities of our grandfather and grandmother in the movie could have been switched,” Sam said, drawing a laugh from his sister. “She was the tough one, and he was a bit more of the teddy bear in real life.”
Another detail changed for the movie: In real life, the family was already a renowned singing group throughout Europe, with offers from American promoters, before they escaped Nazi-occupied Austria. Like in the movie, the family had to covertly plan their escape, leaving behind their lavish home and all of their possessions, though they actually boarded a train to Italy, rather than trekking through the mountains. The family’s connections to concert promoters aided them in their passage to America, as they knew that paying gigs would be arranged upon arrival.
Despite the family’s renown, they arrived in New York City with only $4. They quickly hit the road playing concert halls as a family singing act. They performed for 10 years as the Trapp Family Singers, earning wide acclaim. A brief look on Spotify shows that their most popular songs to this day are from their Christmas album, with “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” (“Silent Night”) among their top five.
The family originally moved to the Philadelphia suburbs in 1939. They eventually settled on a large property at the top of a hill overlooking the Green Mountains in Stowe, Vermont, in 1942.
“They were trying to get away from the hot, humid summers of Pennsylvania, and they came up, spent the summer of 1942 here in Stowe and fell in love with this environment,” Sam said. “In the final week that they were here, they came up to look at this beautiful farm that all the locals had told them they should see. They saw this view, and they just felt this is where they should be.”
Kristina added: “In those days, also, it wasn’t so glamorous to be living on a hill. It was a rough dirt road to get up here, the land was really rocky, so they had a lot of work to do to clean everything up and make it this beautiful 2,600-acre property that we have these days.”
When they purchased the property it was a working farm with run-down buildings. Through significant effort and family teamwork, they opened it as a hotel at a time when the downhill ski industry was drawing many enthusiasts to Stowe. Throughout the resort are photos of the family, and you can see that they truly built the home themselves. One image shows the daughters Maria, Agathe, and Johanna in their Austrian-style dresses, pouring concrete with their father, Baron Georg.
“The way that this started as a hotel is important because it was the family’s home,” Kristina said. “They were inviting people to come and stay with them. When they were traveling and singing, they said, ‘We have this beautiful place in Vermont. It reminds us of Austria. You must come visit.’
“So they were really inviting people in the beginning, and then when the original hotel burned down in 1980, our dad’s vision was to create something that still had that really comfortable, homey atmosphere.”
Kristina and Sam’s father Johannes is the 10th, youngest, and only living child of Maria and Georg, and the only child born in America. As a young adult, he served as a missionary in Papua New Guinea, attended Dartmouth College upon his return, and earned a master’s degree in forestry from Yale. He designed the first commercial cross-country ski center in the United States on the property in 1968, and took over day-to-day operations of the hotel from Maria in 1969.
Kristina and Sam both traveled the world and lived in Aspen, Colorado, for many years. They eventually returned to their Vermont home to take the torch from their father, becoming the third generation of von Trapps to manage the resort.
Trapp Family Lodge is approaching its 75th anniversary. The influence of both Maria and Johannes can be felt strongly throughout the property, and it guides the way Sam and Kristina lead the resort.
“We use that word all the time as a deciding factor when we’re trying to decide whether or not to do something,” Sam said. “Well, is that ‘gemütlichkeit’? And if it is, then yes, that’s what we want to do here.”
Rest, Relaxation, and Connecting With Nature
“Our motto for our hotel is ‘a little of Austria, a lot of Vermont,’” Kristina said.“When people come here, we say it’s either a retreat because it’s such a calm, quiet hillside to be on, or it may be a pilgrimage if they are looking for ‘The Sound of Music’ connections. But all the people that come up here just kind of slow down and get present and relax, and really get grounded again.”
The resort indeed promotes a general sense of relaxation. From the classical music, the traditional Austrian interior design, to photos of the von Trapp family throughout the resort, the lodge brings visitors back in time to a cozy Austrian chalet from a bygone era. Amenities such as indoor and outdoor pools, hot tubs, a sauna, and a state-of-the-art wellness center add to the experience. There are also a variety of experiences and tours including maple sugaring, lots of unique farm animals, and a rustic chapel built by Uncle Rupert as gratitude for surviving World War II with the United States’ 10th Mountain Division elite squad. There’s so much on offer that a weekly calendar of events is published.
Outdoor enthusiasts have plenty to do at nearby Stowe Mountain Resort, which offers downhill skiing on Vermont’s tallest peak, Mount Mansfield. Earlier on the day of the Christmas tree lighting, Sam took me and my 13-year-old daughter out for a cross-country skiing lesson and to give us an overview of the cross-country skiing center.
“My father Johannes is officially recognized by the International Skiing History Association with creating the first full-service cross-country ski center [in the U.S.] right here at Trapp Family Lodge, back in 1968,” Sam said. “He used to cross-country ski out here with his college roommate, who was from Norway, and they loved just to come out and bang around in the woods and have a good time, when the downhill ski area got too crowded. He was later looking for a way to draw people more directly to our property.
The Art of Craft Beer
Between the skiing and the Christmas tree lighting, Sam also took some time to give a tour of the resort’s von Trapp Brewing Bierhall and Restaurant. It’s a major operation, with a big bar, a restaurant, and a large-scale brewery and distribution hub in the back.“My father Johannes always loved beer, and he thought that [having a brewery] would really add to the experience, having experienced what it’s like in Austria when you go into a small town that has its own local brewery where the locals all come together,” Sam said.
“So we started the first brewery in 2010 and the beer was very well received. So he decided, ‘OK, this is something that I could take out to a bigger market,’ and then we built this big cutting-edge facility. This opened in 2015 and now we’re distributing our beer in 17 states.”
Vermont has long had a tradition of local craft beers, which usually range from dark to pale ales with a hoppy bite, hazy body, and high alcohol content. At von Trapp Brewery, however, the focus is on lagers.
“Salzburg gets a lot of rain, and water is critical to making good beer,” Sam said. “So you need to have a really good source of water. We happen to have that here.
“We have an amazing spring that provides all the water for brewing that allows us to make these really nice, delicate lagers. ... Decoction is a style of brewing which is used in Bavaria and Austria, and it’s common in these lagers, and it’s a way of getting a deeper flavor profile into a beer that isn’t overly hopped or overly high in alcohol.”
Toward the end of the night, as the crowd began to disperse following the Christmas tree lighting and caroling, my wife and I bumped into Sam as he graciously moved through the lobby and lounge. He had a glass of one of his award-winning lagers and was exchanging kind smiles and genuine pleasantries with each family.
“Singing in a large group is magical,” he mused as he offered a warm smile.
Such genuine hospitality from the grandson of Maria von Trapp felt like genuine “gemütlichkeit”!
When You Go
Getting There: Trapp Family Lodge sits on a hill in Stowe, Vermont, between the main street and the road to Stowe Mountain Resort at Mount Mansfield.
The Vermont capital Montpelier is a 30-minute drive away, and it’s one hour to Burlington, which has the closest international airport.
Dining: Trapp Family Lodge has four on-site dining options serving European-style dishes using locally sourced ingredients. The Dining Room, which serves breakfast and dinner, provides sweeping views of the grounds and mountains. The Lounge serves lunch, dinner, and cocktails. Kaffeehaus is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and offers prepared foods, breakfast sandwiches, and a quaint grocery stocked with snacks and Vermont treats. It is also the lodge’s on-site bakery, where all breads and desserts are prepared from scratch daily by a team of pastry chefs. The von Trapp Brewing Bierhall is one of the most popular casual restaurants in northern Vermont, serving house beers and inventive versions of classic Austrian dishes such as schnitzel and bratwurst.
Special Events: Visit TrappFamily.com/Happenings for a listing of special events, such as Christmas and New Year’s gatherings, concerts, and the Stowe Winter Carnival.
Greater Stowe: Stowe’s main street is a charming place to shop and buy gifts. There is also a quaint movie theater and bowling alley in town. Visit Stowe.com for information about alpine skiing in the area.
The author was a guest of Trapp Family Lodge.
