Fall Has Arrived

Our Curator Cat, Frankie, is busy inspecting the first of the holiday decorations . . .

. . . And of course, we are looking forward to our fall events! As we plan out the rest of the calendar for 2024, we have a Harrison House birthday, an appearance at the Roseland Day fair, and a few holiday events in December. There’s a lot to make sure that the house is in shape for!

But did you know that holiday decorating in the past was not as big a deal as it is today? Even though they had many of things we use to decorate, like squashes, pumpkins, and corn—or garlands and wreaths for December—in the early years of the Harrison House, they may not have bothered to decorate much at all. Many people preferred few decorations and there simply wasn’t as much cultural pressure to make things look festive—besides, there would be lots of work to be done, getting ready for cold weather. To our eyes today, historic holidays might look strangely bare!

This is a constant balancing act when you’re curating a historic house. While the house might not have been very decorated in the past, modern audiences love to see decorations—and so do we! So we often make decisions about decorating on a case-by-case basis. We’ll see what the rest of this year brings!