Celebrate the Season at Dalnavert
The weather outside is frightful but being at Dalnavert is so delightful!
Want to learn about how Victorian families celebrated Christmas? Then join us on weekends starting December 7 for Deck the Halls of Dalnavert: A Victorian Christmas Tour, where you’ll learn about the explosion in popularity of Christmas in Victorian times, what modern traditions were invented, and what the game of snapdragon is (hint it’s dangerous).
Try your hand at creating a beautiful hand-made foraged wreath at our Wreath Making Workshop on December 5 (SOLD OUT)
There’ll be free admission and family programming for a festive edition of Second Saturdays! On December 14th explore the house all decorated for the holidays and get into the holiday spirit with some crafts and parlour games!
Get into the Christmas spirit December 19-22 with A Christmas Carol with Ron Robinson. A longtime friend of Dalnavert and beloved radio host, Ron has been generously sharing his stylings of the classic Dickens tale with our guests every holiday season for over a decade.
Spend an afternoon on the shortest day of the year with Laurie McDougall of Velvetleaf Beadworks at our Solstice Crafting Circle.
Then after Christmas and into the New Year (December 27-29, January 2-5), we’ll be having some fun winter activities such as craft making, story reading, and our Deck the Halls tours as part of our Winter Break Programming!
Upcoming Events
Let us guide you through the process of wreath-making using locally foraged materials.
*SOLD OUT*
Free admission and family programming for this festive edition of our Second Saturdays!
Each year, at the end of November, the Dalnavert Volunteers gather in the parlour and decorate the Christmas tree. This year I had the honour of witnessing this event. Music fills the air as the volunteers carefully place the ornaments on the tree. Of these ornaments, some are antique, some have been donated by past volunteers, and some are attempts at recreating the handmade ornaments of the Victorian era. I found this last type to be the most interesting as it led me to wonder, what did people hang on their trees before the commercialization of Christmas decorations?
When we think of Christmas, where does your mind go? Sitting by the fire, curled up with hot chocolate and a book? Or perhaps, decorating the Christmas tree, maybe even watching Christmas movies with your family; all of these are modern traditions but how did people in the nineteenth century celebrate Christmas? In this post, I will be discussing the differences between American vs British Christmas in the Nineteenth-Century.
The invention of the Christmas card was made possible by the invention of the Penny Post in 1840. To modern eyes, the motifs chosen for these cards may be a touch weird or even morbid at times. As these cards were the first of their kind, we see the early experimentation with different scenery and icons which did not survive into the 21st Century.