The story of how Christmas past became the modern tradition is offered at The Newark Museum, located at 49 Washington St. Each year, the museum’s National Historic Landmark, the 1885 Ballantine House, offers visitors a taste of how the holiday was celebrated in late Victorian Newark, as English, German and Dutch holiday traditions merged into something not so very different from the way the holiday is celebrated in America today.
This historically accurate installation, which opened on Nov. 29, offers the opportunity to step back in time to learn about 19th-century life and traditions. From the Christmas tree (a German tradition) to the wooden shoes by the hearth (a Dutch tradition) to the stockings on the chimney and plum pudding in the dining room (English traditions), visitors can get a sense of how Christmas evolved into a home-based secular holiday in the 19th century.
Elsewhere in the museum, the Alice and Leonard Dreyfuss Planetarium will present the annual favorite “Season of Light” on Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m. through Dec. 22. The 40-minute program, for those ages 6 and up, traces the development of many of the world’s endearing holiday customs.