Home for the Holidays

Home for the Holidays: Turn-of-the-Century Entertaining and the Chastain Glass Collection

• $4.00 per person including chaperones
• minimum group of 16 required for registration

The Victorians invented Christmas as we know it, with decorated Christmas trees, St. Nicholas visiting on Christmas Eve to bring presents, and in the United States, a large turkey dinner.  This exhibition will help teach your students how the holiday developed in America with the introduction of many traditions coming from new immigrants to America in the 19th century.

First we will visit in front of the Christmas tree, and learn about the history of Christmas leading up to the Victorian Era.  We’ll discuss ways our current celebrations have been influenced by the Victorian celebration, and the origins of many of our customs and traditions.

We start creating our Victorian Christmas with ornaments.  Handmade decorations were very much the rage in Victorian times, and we’ll make a cornucopia perfect for filling with candy and a shiny Santa for each student to take home.

Then we’ll adjourn to the parlor for some games!  Children played very differently in Victorian times, and we’ll learn several fun games to be played indoors during the winter months.  These are simple and easy for the children to play at home, and students will get a handout with game rules to take home.

Last but not least, we will truly get a taste of Victorian Christmas!  Students will make and eat sugarplums – a mix of dried fruit, nuts and orange juice rolled in sugar – and taste a variety of foods from the time from marzipan candy to plum pudding complete with hard sauce (non-alchoholic of course!).