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] > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]