Teddy bears to help ring in season at Allison-Antrim Museum

Allison-Antrim Museum, 365 S. Ridge Ave., Greencastle, will host open houses for the holiday season Dec. 1 through 15 on Mondays and Thursdays from 1 – 3 p.m. and Wednesdays from 1 – 4 p.m.  Additionally the museum will be open on the first Friday of Heritage Christmas, Dec. 3 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m, Friday, Dec. 10 from 1 – 3 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 5 from 1 to 4 p.m.

Check the Website for updates on additional open house times or call 717-597-9010 for more information.  

On Dec. 3 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 Dec. 3.

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 2010 special holiday exhibit will be Teddy Bears.  A brief history of the legend of the Teddy Bear, named after Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, will be given.  Bears by Gund, Russ, Dakin, Boyd’s Bears, Beanie Babies, and Bailey’s Bears of Waynesboro will be among those exhibited, along with a mink bear, a bear crèche, old bears, and much loved bears.  Many have names, such as Fuzz, Angie Pangie, Pudgy, and Doolittle Buckshot.

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 and 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, Nancy and Kyle Smith and their staff at Garden Smiths, Inc., 262 N. Carlisle St., will demonstrate how to use fresh greens for holiday decorating.  Some arrangements will be given away.  Demonstrations will be held in the south bay of the barn's upper level.  

For more 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.