Christmas at The Geffrye Museum

Recapture the magic of Christmas with a visit to the Geffrye’s annual Christmas Past exhibition. Each year the museum’s eleven period rooms are decorated in authentic festive style, evoking some of the rich and colourful traditions and celebrations of Christmases past which are often forgotten amid the hubbub of the modern festive season.

From feasting, dancing and kissing under the mistletoe to playing parlour games, decorating the tree and throwing cocktail parties, Christmas Past will illustrate how Christmas has been celebrated in English middle-class homes from 1600 to the present day.

The Geffrye explores the home from 1600 to the present day. The east London museum’s focus is on the living rooms of the urban middle classes in England, particularly London. A chronological sequence of period rooms show how homes have been used and furnished the past 400 years, reflecting the changes in society and patterns of behaviour as well as style, fashion and taste.

In tune with the current economic climate (but no Ebenezer Scrooge for the Geffrye, admission is free) and to complement the museum’s special Eco Home exhibition, this year’s programme of related events will embrace ‘make do and mend’ and all things home-made.

And if you’re in need of some serious new year cheer, go along to the “Farewell to Christmas” on the 6th January. This is the Geffrye’s traditional burning of the holly and the ivy, celebrated with carol singing, stories about Epiphany and a taste of mulled wine and Twelfth Night cake.

For more infromation visit www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/