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Discover homes of winters past, present and future

From November 2024 to January 2025


Reflect on the many traditions that mark the colder months as we unveil 400 years of winter at home.

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.

Our much-loved annual Winter Past display returns, where our Rooms Through Time are dressed for winter and highlight how seasonal celebrations have evolved across different periods and communities.

Creating new traditions

Our rich programme of events and redressed rooms 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 winter traditions.

From Huguenot Noël in the 1740s to a Chosen Family Christmas in 2005 to imagining the festive season 25 years from now, these interactive exhibits provide a space for reflection on how we celebrate, both in the past and in the future.

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

A dark red backdrop with objects from the fifties laid out flat, including a vintage pink hairdryer, blue patterned tie, cat-eye glasses frames and earrings in a pink dish

Housewarming: A Room Upstairs in 1956

Thursday 24 October | Free with paid workshops and tours

Book now

 

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Diwali Family Day

Saturday 2 November | Free

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Winter Past

19 November 2024 - 12 January 2025


 

'The Bottle Imp' On A Vintage Toy Theatre Stage

Pollock's: The Bottle Imp, A Dramatic Romance in Two Acts

Friday 1 November

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Cinderella

Pollock's: Dick Whittington and Cinderella

Sunday 24 November

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Yard Sale

Sunday 1 December | Early Bird tickets available until 10 October

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Christmas Wreath-Making Workshop

Saturday 7 December | with Head Gardener Heather Stevens

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Housewarming: A Tenement Flat in 1913

Thursday 28 November | Tickets on sale soon


 

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Winter Gathering

Thursday 5 December 2024


 

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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.

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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.

Support the Museum

With your help we can use our collections and programmes to reveal and rethink the ways we live, in order to live better together.

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