Museum to feature gingerbread for Christmas open houses
Allison-Antrim Museum, 365 South Ridge Ave., will host open houses for the holiday season Dec. 1 to 11 with special open houses on Heritage Christmas Friday, Dec. 4 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 6 from 1 to 4 p.m. The museum is open regularly every week, Monday through Friday from noon to 4 pm. The museum will be closed Christmas Day.
On Dec. 4 Greencastle's first Heritage Christmas night of the season, hosts and hostesses at the museum will be members of the board of directors. Weather permitting, luminaries will guide the way to the front-door entrance. Inside, Dr. Terry Musselman (dressed in period clothes) will accompany guests with traditional holiday music on the dulcimer and sultry. The Carl family standard gauge Lionel train and late 19th century toys will be on display, as well as the Craig family toys. Light refreshments will be served to museum visitors on Dec. 4.
The 1860 museum house will be decorated as homes would have been during the Civil War era, during the mid-Victorian period. A della Robbia fruit arrangement, roping, fresh magnolia and boxwood greens, and an old-fashioned cedar tree decorated with dried fruit, gilded walnuts, Marzipan fruit candies, gingerbread cookies, antique candle holders, and Civil War flags will take visitors back to a much simpler time. The epergne on the hall table, which was used in the McLaughlin Hotel for their guests during the first half of the 20th century, will be used in a traditional way to display fruit. Bonnie Shockey, president of the museum, will be dressed in a Civil War period dress as the lady of the house, Martha Irwin, may have been in 1860.
The 2009 special holiday exhibit will be gingerbread houses and gingerbread boys and girls. AAMI has invited the public to make donations of the gingerbread creations for display. Museum visitors will vote for their favorite house and favorite gingerbread boy or girl. The first place winner in both categories will receive a 3 oz. bag of Butterfields hard candy and a copy of the 2007 pictorial history book of Greencastle-Antrim.
In the spirit of St. Nickolas and Santa Claus, children who visit Allison-Antrim Museum during December will receive a small treat. The museum is also inviting visitors, if they so choose, to share the Christmas spirit of giving by bringing a new children's book (infant through the elementary level) for needy Greencastle-Antrim families during this difficult economic period. The books will be given to the Greencastle-Antrim Exchange Club, which will distribute the books along with other wish-list items to families on Christmas Eve.
Between 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4 Nancy and Kyle Smith and their staff at Garden Smiths, Inc., 262 North Carlisle St., will demonstrate how to use fresh greens for holiday decorating. Demonstrations will be held in the barn's upper level.
For information, call the museum at 717-597-9010 or visit the website at www.greencastlemuseum.org
There is no charge for admission but donations are accepted.