Yuletide at Winterthur

A Winterthur Experience option; Members, $5

Breathtaking decorations. Holiday melodies. Fragrant evergreens. This year’s Yuletide is sure to delight your senses . . . and inspire your personal style.

The warm glow of the museum entices you to enter, and the strains of festive and cheery songs floating through the air the spark memories of holidays old and new. Once inside the museum, you’ll be greeted by the woodsy fragrance of fresh evergreens. Elegant displays evoke visions of your own home adorned for seasons past, present, and future. Suddenly, what to your wondering eyes should appear—an amazing, sparkling evergreen-and-dried-flower ball hanging from the ceiling! It’s a huge kissing ball, and its size and splendor are overwhelming. And that’s just the beginning....

Yuletide at Winterthur begins the moment you arrive and continues throughout your visit. Along with trees decked to perfection and awe-inspiring kissing balls, the ever-popular Yuletide Tour in the mansion features old favorites as well as new surprises. For what would the winter season be without the always-popular dried-flower tree in the Conservatory or the graceful Montmorenci Stair Hall dressed for the holidays? Yes, the mansion’s period rooms will be filled with the displays everyone loves, along with some exciting and inspiring additions.
Journey with us through holiday traditions spanning the mid-1700s through today. The tour begins with displays showing the simple elements of customs enjoyed by colonial Americans—wood-frame pyramids decorated with candles and fruit, like those made by members of the Moravian Church about 1750, and tabletop trees surrounded by plates of cookies, popular during the antebellum period. As people grew more prosperous and traditions took root, celebrations became more elaborate, as seen in the representations of lavish meals and towering, elegantly decorated trees from the 1880s. And what would the Yuletide season be without New Year’s Calling, a 200-year-old du Pont family tradition still practiced today. It’s fun to imagine what Christmas might have been like for the du Pont family at Winterthur, and re-created celebrations from the 1930s and 1940s explore this theme.

But the culmination of the tour is, without doubt, the four rooms decorated at Winterthur’s invitation by interior designer Thomas Jayne. Often noted as one of America’s top decorators, Jayne has a distinctive approach acknowledges that builds on cherished antecedents while remaining connected and relevant to contemporary lifestyles, demands, and tastes. His redesigned Winterthur rooms—sophisticated, clever, and fun—should be on everyone’s must-see list. Their elegant beauty and whimsical style are sure to impress and inspire. Also not to be missed is the full menu of activities, including musical performances and informative how-to demonstrations, offered throughout Yuletide.

Continue your holiday tradition—or start a new one—by joining us this yuletide season. Delight your senses and celebrate in style—the Winterthur way!