Eggbert’s Christmas Plans Revealed for 2021, and it’s Not Good News

Last year, Eggbert's Christmas on the Farm was canceled with plans to have the holiday icon return bigger and better in 2021, but there's been a major change to those plans.

In 2020 the global pandemic led many cherished holiday events to be canceled. The Sinterklaas festival in Rhinebeck was completely scrapped, many holiday events and parades were also canceled and Eggbert did not make his annual appearance.

Eggbert has been greeting boys and girls of the Hudson Valley since the early 70s. The beloved Christmas egg holds court at Devitt's Nursery and Supply in New Windsor each year, asking children what holiday gifts they desire and sending the information directly to Santa himself.

Billed as "Christmas on the Farm," Devitt's transforms their property into an elaborate holiday trail featuring live animals, animated figures, train rides, and an enormous slot car track. Thousands of Hudson Valley residents make an annual pilgrimage through the trail, eventually meeting with Eggbert himself.

Last year, Devitt's announced that Eggbert would not be returning. A representative then told us that the risk to visitors was too great explaining, "With the increase of (COVID-19) cases and the difficulty with social distancing we made the hard choice not to do it."

At the time, the plan was to have Eggbert stay in quarantine for a year and then triumphantly return in 2021, but sadly, that's not the case. On October 7 Devitt's made the announcement that the holiday egg would not be making an appearance once again.

With the Orange County increase in the Delta variant of Coronavirus, we've decided to keep Eggbert in Quarantine again this year. This greatly saddens us as we really thought we'd be on the other side of the pandemic by now. We know many see Christmas on the Farm as an outdoor event, but most of the attractions are indoors and it is nearly impossibly to social distance. We are aware that many people will be disappointed, but we will work towards bringing Eggbert and Christmas on the Farm back better than ever next year.

Devitt's added that the animals, which is a popular outdoor attraction, will be returning this year.  The nursery's Christmas store will also open as usual on Black Friday.