Reflect on the many traditions that mark the colder months as we unveil 400 years of winter at home.
From November 2024 to January 2025
Museum of the Home's annual Winter Festival is back. With events spanning a range of cultural and historical festivals—from Diwali and Hanukkah to Christmas and Lunar New Year—the Museum will be the destination for appreciating winter in its many forms.
Creating new traditions
Our rich programme of events and redressed rooms for Winter Past will focus on our period rooms spanning the past 400 years. This year, for the first time, this will include our new rooms from 1878 to 2049, encouraging visitors to consider the changing nature of traditions.
Winter Festival invites you to engage with winter in a meaningful way, whether you're exploring on your own or with others. We look forward to welcoming you.
What's on
Winter Past
19 November 2024 - 12 January 2025 | Our much-loved annual Winter Past display returns! The Rooms Through Time will be redressed to highlight how seasonal celebrations have evolved across different periods and communities.
Find out more
Shiv Ji (Chila Kumari Singh Burman, 2023)
4pm to 9pm | On the green roof A light installation bringing brightness and colour to visitors through the darker winter days.
Find out moreHousewarming: A Tenement Flat in 1913
Pollock’s Live Toy Theatre
Yard Sale
Winter Gathering
Christmas Wreath-Making Workshop
Lunar New Year at Museum of the Home
14 January to February 2025
Discover the 2024 British Vietnamese home, where the Nguyen family is cleaning the house, preparing the shrine and redecorating the rooms from Christmas to Lunar New Year.
You're invited to dive deeper into the stories and traditions found during this season at our Museum Late in January, Housewarming: A Terraced House in 2024, and February Half Term Family Day celebrating Lunar New Year. Read about last year's Family Celebration to get an idea of what to expect!
Read more
Visit our new Terraced House in 2024 as the Nguyen family prepares their home to celebrate both Christmas and 'Tet' - Vietnamese Lunar New Year. This season is about connection and togetherness.
For Christmas, expect the smells of dầu or VaporRub wafting, flashes of pink and blue tinsel, special festive plates on the kitchen table for hot pot, and an artificial Christmas tree with DIY decorations.
For Lunar New Year, the money tree is decorated with red paper lanterns while the ancestral shrine is cleaned and prepared with offerings (fruits and food). There will be moon cakes and 'li xi' (red envelopes) with money, and astrology readings.
We have collaborated with community author Hannah Vu who draws on her lived experience as a British Vietnamese person to bring our kitchen, living room and herb garden to life this winter.
“Home is constantly evolving and so do our traditions. From Huguenot Noël in the 1740s to a Chosen Family Christmas in 2005 to imagining the festive season 25 years from now, our interactive exhibits provide a space for reflection on how we celebrate, both in the past and in the future.”
Sonia Solicari - Director, Museum of the Home
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