Sturbridge is built around Old Sturbridge Village, the largest living-history museum in the Northeast, where costumed interpreters bring 1830s rural New England to life across a sprawling campus of homes, farms, and trades — the reason most visitors come. Nearby, the Brimfield Antique Show fills the fields three times a year (May, July, and September) with one of the country's great outdoor antiques markets. In town, the historic Publick House and the Sturbridge common anchor a walkable colonial center of inns and restaurants, and Wells State Park and the central Massachusetts lakes offer hiking, paddling, and swimming a short drive away. The Hyland Orchard and the regional farms add cider and picking, while history buffs can seek out Tantiusques and the Leadmine Road history, an old graphite mine site. Culture and dining sit a short drive north in Worcester and its museums, and the casinos and trails of the Connecticut "Quiet Corner" lie just over the line to the south. Sturbridge wears its colonial-gateway character well, and it works in every season — the Village's harvest and Christmas-by-candlelight programming, the Brimfield markets, fall foliage and apple season — with both town hotels offering an indoor pool to return to after a day of history and antiquing. Seasonal highlights include The Brimfield Antique Show — May, July, and September markets nearby, Old Sturbridge Village seasonal and harvest programming, Christmas by Candlelight at Old Sturbridge Village (December). Sturbridge rewards visits in every season, from green-season hiking and water days to brilliant autumn foliage and quiet, snow-dusted winters.