Royal Ball offers family-friendly Sunday sparkle

Bill Bengtson, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·2 min read

Dec. 11—Finger food, frills and festivity were part of Sunday's scene at Aiken County Historical Museum, with the Aiken Standard holding a highly kid-friendly gathering with plenty of extra glitter.

Royal Ball participants were treated to a relatively modern, Disney-style soundtrack and the chance to meet with movie characters from the same tradition, with Christmas decorations abounding and plenty of photo opportunities in the mix.

"It was great," said event sponsor Stacey Bulfinch Idica, owner of Aloha Aesthetics, recalling "an extra-special day" for the young participants.

"I think the location was fantastic. It was beautifully decorated with Christmas trees and ... nutcrackers, and there were children and families enjoying the festivities."

Dancing, magic and rings were favorite components for Jennifer Barajas, 4, who also opted for hand-painting courtesy of Aiken Balloon Creations, which had Sandi Brandner as one of its artists on duty, handling face-painting for the most part.

"The little girls were just so beautiful in all of their dresses, and they loved the gems," Brandner said. "The museum would not let us use glitter, so we used little gems, and the little girls loved their gems."

The extra "something sparkly" was a hit, as was the option of getting the "Elsa" treatment in face-painting, she added.

"We had one little boy, and he got a 'Minion,' and most of the little girls wanted Elsa, but we had one little girl who wanted a dinosaur, which was very unusual."

The idea was "just to help little girls and little boys feel extra-special," Idica said.

The host site, a Newberry Street mansion known as Banksia, has connections to some of Aiken's more colorful moments, as the building dates back to the 1930s and had a chapter as the base of operations for USC Aiken, in the university's earliest days. The 3.5-acre lot is also home to a one-room schoolhouse from the 1890s and a log cabin built in 1808.

The museum's purpose, "under the direction of the Aiken County Historical Commission, is to collect and preserve historical material relating to Aiken County, to display and interpret such information to the public," as stated on the museum's website.