Live Webinar: Historic House Call: Home for the Holidays: Interpreting Christmas at Your Historic Site

Christmas in July? Yes, it’s time to start planning for the Christmas holiday at your historic site. For many historic sites, the holiday season, Christmas and New Year’s, are the most visited times of the year. This webinar will examine the pros and cons of interpreting the holiday and different approaches (period installations or those that only evoke the season) a site may take. This webinar will briefly present the evolution of Christmas traditions in America acknowledging regional differences.  It will also offer resources for doing research and a practical guide to obtaining period appropriate decorations and managing the installation at your historic house. The presenters will offer successful examples and ideas for hosting a wide variety of events appropriate to the season and your site.

About the Presenters:

Kenneth Turino is Manager of Community Engagement and Exhibitions at Historic New England. Mr. Turino oversees the exhibitions program at Historic New England and community engagement projects in New England. Previously, Mr. Turino was Executive Director of the Lynn Museum, an active local history museum in Lynn, Massachusetts. Ken is an adjunct professor in the Tufts University Museum Studies Program. There he teaches courses on the future of historic houses. Mr. Turino is a Trustee of the House of Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts. He is on the faculty of The History Leadership Institute. Along with Max van Balgooy, he is in an instructor for AASLH’s Reinventing the Historic House Museum Workshop. He has published several articles on the history of Christmas and speaks on the topic widely.

Andy Hahn is the executive director of the Campbell House Museum in St. Louis.  During his 15-year tenure he managed the planning and completion of a $3 million building restoration effort and more recently he spearheaded an expansion of the Museum’s research efforts culminating in the publication of two major books. Previously Andy was the curator of the corporate art collection and the corporate historian at the international brokerage firm A.G. Edwards. Andy is a member of AASLH’s Historic House Museums Committee.