Mus-Ed: ‘Tis the Season for Holiday Traditions

My job as the Museum’s Program Coordinator is like a revolving door, just as we are wrapping up our busy holiday season, I am booking our vendors, artists and musicians for Christmas 2019. Ensuring we always have new and exciting programs and events at the museum, a lot of time goes into the behind the scenes planning. I can’t wait to share with all of you what we have in store for this year.

During the holiday season, excitement runs deep for people of all ages. Since my last blog at the end of November, we have had almost 800 people come through our doors to enjoy the special events that we had planned for our wonderful community within those first two weeks of December. That is an extraordinary amount of happy individuals basking in the cheerful holiday spirit in the museum. Thank you to all that attended, whether this was your first time visiting or if you are a regular, seeing your smiling faces at our museum is what this is all about.

Fun Through Learning

Our holiday school program wrapped up, and I am currently being kept company by about 300 hundred clay snow people/animals in my office. These delightfully hand crafted snow people/animals were created by local school aged children during their schools visit to the museum in conjunction with our Snow: A Canadian Identity program. They are patiently awaiting their time to shine when they will be exhibited in the front cases of the museum. They represent the original traditions of snow people as a means of community involvement and getting people out of their houses in the cold winter months. The exhibit will be open to the public from January 18th-February 28th.  

Holiday Traditions

The Holiday season is one for traditions, new and old. The Grace United Church Bell Ringers filled our museum with the most beautiful Christmas melodies, and wowed our sold out audience. Although this was the first time that the Bell Ringers played at the museum, I have a suspicion this will be a new tradition to Ring in the Holidays every year. Our 5th annual Christmas Tree event was another huge success, a tradition that has come to mean a lot for people in our community. As one of our guests (an adult I will add) hugged Father Christmas she said, “Coming to this event and seeing you every year is my favorite Christmas tradition”. The community organizations that were involved did a spectacular job decorating their trees, and help to turn our museum into a true Winter Wonderland. This is an event that I enjoyed with my children before working at the museum and I am thrilled to now be behind the scenes to help it continue to grow and evolve as the years go on. A huge thank-you also to our community for filling the Salvation Army bin with winter warmth donations from the Museum Giving Tree.

Looking Ahead

Even though January is a quiet month for programs, I am behind the scenes busy working on the program and event plan for 2019. With just under 150 special event days whether musical, educational, traditional and some just for fun, there will be lots of opportunities for you to enjoy the museum in 2019! The next event is January 15th at 7pm when we welcome Norma Shepherd who will be sharing her fashion display of Gatsby Garments: What they Wore to Roar. Our next edition of our free Museum Kids program, as well as our Heritage Arts Workshop Series for ages 14+, both start on February 2nd learning all about making chocolate. For more information on upcoming programs and events, or how to register, you can visit our website www.countymuseum.ca or find us on Facebook.

Happy New Years to you all, I can’t wait to enjoy all of the great things going on at the museum in 2019 with you.   ---Amber