The holidays can be a magical season for you and your family in Toronto. The historic sites around the city offer your family a chance to enjoy the history of the city with holiday events for the whole family, some especially for the kid. Here are some events at local historic sites that will make your holiday season be both educational and entertaining. Check for specific locations, dates, and times @ www1.toronto.ca.
Gingerbread Baking and Decorating at Historic Inns
If you or your children love gingerbread, you should visit the Fort York National Historic Site and Museum December 27-31 for the Gingerbread Make and Bake in the Officer’ Mess kitchen. Children (4+) will use period cooking implements to crush cinnamon and cloves, pound sugar, and grate nutmeg and ginger, using an 1800’s recipes. Holiday tours of Fort York available December 14-31.
Or, you should visit the Gibson House Museum December 12, 1-4:30 pm, for the whole family to decorate baked gingerbread men. You will tour the museum with costumed interpreters and learn how the original Gibson’s would have baked their gingerbread at the hearth.
Inns with Scottish New Year Hogmanay Dinners
Also at the Gibson House Museum, you can celebrate New Year’s Dinner on December 28-29 at 6 pm (age 12+). Celebrate a historic Scottish Hogmanay celebration by sharing a traditional dinner at the fireside, with music, to transport you on an imagined journey back to New Years in the past.
Another Hogmanay celebration is part of the Victorian Christmas at Mackenzie House, December 30, 9 pm. Enjoy this traditional New Year’s celebration by gas and candlelight with Scottish food, and music performed by Gin Lane. Between November 24th and January 3rd, you can tour this home to hear how families celebrated Christmas in the 19th century.
While visiting the Mackenzie House by December 24, kids can write a letter to Santa on cards printed on the 1845 printing press. The recreated print shop at Mackenzie also lets kids print cards and make a New Year’s noisemaker from December 27-January 3.
Time Travel through Four Decades at Two Historic Inns
Check out life in the Roaring Twenties in the Spadina Museum, decorated for the season in traditional twenties style through January 3. Taste holiday treats from original recipes, sipping mulled cider in the kitchen.
Discover the 1930s Golden Age of Radio December 6, 13, 20 at the Spadina for a recreated period radio show with live music and sound effects. Kids can decorate cookies during the show.
Holiday traditions in the 1890s and the 1940s are both on display at Todmorden Mills. You can sample historic recipes, make crafts, or have a winter themed tour outdoors of the Wildflower Preserve.
Evening Entertainment
Also at Todmorden, the Mainstage Theater Company has a live show of Pippin, December 11-12. It is the story of Prince Pippin, son of Charlemagne, and how he searches for happiness and fulfillment.
At Montgomery’s Inn, you can enjoy Carols at the Tavern, singing 19th century carols while enjoying spirits, mulled cider, and savory treats. The inn also has a Humber River Shakespeare Company production of A Christmas Carol, the Dickens classic, various days in December.
Historic Toronto offers fun, education, and entertainment for all ages during the holidays.