We generally have a "Christmas Trees from Around the World" theme, with
our docent guild providing the work in decorating the trees each year.
There are about sixteen to seventeen 8 foot trees decked out in ornaments
that have some history of that particular country's holiday traditions.
The trees are placed throughout the lobby and permanent galleries.   A
menorah is placed by our patron wall.  This year we invited First Ladies
from throughout the world to contribute ornaments to a special
"Friendship Tree" that will be on display in the lobby; embassy officials
from those contributing countries will be present for a special ceremony
with Julie Nixon Eisenhower on December 3.  Many of the countries which
were chosen by the docents were places visited by both Richard and Pat
Nixon from hs vice presidential days on.  The docents sell a small
booklet describing the trees, and those places which the Nixons visited.
So we tie it in to our gallery themes.  The docents also decorate a
fabulous tree which they then raffle off by selling tickets.  Proceeds
from the booklet and the Xmas tree raffle go back into the docent guild
Christmas tree fund.

We also decorate a tree in our reproduction Lincoln Sitting Room gallery
with the Nixon family ornaments; these ornaments date back to the 1950s
and some of these family items were on display in White House Christmas
trees during the Presidency.  People seem to enjoy it.

There is a tradition of placing gingerbread houses on White House
mantles, so we invite former (& present) White House chefs to do a
presentation of their "cooking" years at the White House, and they make
gingerbread houses for display.  The gingerbread constructions are placed
well away from artifacts; and as they are only for display, they are
sprayed with a preservative so they are not edible.

Many of the Presidential Libraries do special teas as well lectures and
also decorate trees; the Reagan Library does a grand job of it, where
they place all of their trees in one space; I can't remember the number
of trees I saw, but it must've been well over thirty; their volunteer
force does a great job.

For all of those "bah humbugs" out there (and we've a thread on this
before), the holidays seem to strike different chords in all of us; if
your visitors' wishes to see some holiday related activities at the
museum outweigh the humbugs, I believe satisfying your audience is the
way to go.

Check out the archives for the thread on the subject, "to have or not to
have Christmas in the museum"; on the world wide web <
http://home.dc.lsoft.com/archives/museum-l.html> or another way to search
the archives is <gopher to host:  ucmpl.berkeley.edu>  If I get these
addresses wrong, check out Chadwick's FAQ's for the Museum-L service.
The man says to search by key words.

O

Yeah!  we play Christmas music.

Olivia S. Anastasiadis, Curator
Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard
Yorba Linda, CA  92886
(714) 993-5075 ext. 224; fax (714) 528-0544; e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

On Tue, 10 Nov 1998 21:15:42 -0800 Promotional Advantage
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Since this is my first year as a musuem director I would like to hear
>what
>other museums do to celebrate the holidays?  Do you decorate for
>Christmas
>or strictly stay with a winter theme?  Do any of you have Sanat
>breakfasts
>or is this considered inappropriate?  Do you play Christmas music?  I
>am
>sure we are like many of you...we are a culturally diverse community.
>Many
>people have begun to ask what we are doing for the holidays.
>
>What to do?
>Nancy
>Children's Museum in Snohomish County
>[log in to unmask]
>

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