Rooms Through Time: Winter Past
From 19 November 2024 to 12 January 2025
Discover the homes and traditions of winters past, present and future.
The Museum's Rooms Through Time have been dressed for the annual Winter Past display, exploring how seasonal festivals, culture and personal traditions shape the ways we spend time at home during the winter months.
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See how the season has changed London homes through the last 400 years, from festive decor and food to the ways people kept warm, entertained themselves, and gathered with loved ones.
This year, the Museum’s newest permanent gallery - with rooms from 1878 to 2049 - will debut new stories of winter. These rooms will showcase the festive season evolving across different periods and communities in East London.
You'll journey from a joyful Midwinter Celebration in 1630 to Midnight Mass in 1956, a Christmas Party in 1978, and even glimpse a futuristic New Year’s Eve in 2049.
Explore the rooms
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!
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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.
What's On
Events
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Visit our Rooms Through Time between November 2024 and January 2025 to explore their stories. Museum of the Home is open 10am-5pm, Tuesday to Sunday and Bank Holidays.