The holidays at Glensheen: what has changed from last year?

Last year’s self-guided Holiday Tour was very successful and so naturally we are continuing many of the elements of that tour. The live piano player will be back on our Grand Steinway Piano in the Living Room, our sample of Clara Condon’s shortbread cookie, and of course all of the Christmas decorations throughout the home and estate will make their return. Lastly, it is the same great price of only $10 per person and free for kids under 12 with a paid adult.

UMD Student and Glensheen staff member, plays the Congdon’s Baby Grand Steinway Piano

But we have made some new changes and additions as well.

The biggest and most obvious change is the name of the tour, from the Holiday Tour to the Christmas Tour. The reason for the change has three main reasons.

1. In an effort to buck the national house museum trend of declining visitor numbers, Glensheen analyzed the practices and offerings of other successful house museums. When examining the house museums’ offerings, it was found that many house museums’ most popular tour is their Christmas Tour.
2. Also, Glensheen’s prior Holiday Tour may not have had a Christmas theme in the narrative, but the home itself and estate was decorated throughout in the Christmas theme and has been for decades.

Clara Congdon’s collected nativity scenes which are displayed in the Master Bedroom during the Christmas Tours.

3. Lastly, recently at the American Association of State and Local History conference in St. Paul, MN, an added influence surfaced. During a luncheon titled, Historic House Museums and Religious History presented by Dr. Jeanne Kilde, author and professor of religious studies at the University of Minnesota, the following theme emerged: ‘don’t be afraid to talk about religion.’ The presenter encouraged historic house museums to talk about the religion of the people that lived within the walls of these historic homes. The staff who manage the history that is shared with it’s guests, have the responsibility to not promote or sell a certain religion or tradition but rather to accurately depict the history of their historic site. When religion is a historic part of the individuals that lived inside these homes, it is important to also illustrate these stories, not to avoid it. The Congdon Family were active Methodists in the Duluth community and known for their Christmas traditions. It would be dis-honest as historians to avoid that part of their lives, which they so proudly celebrated.

So for those reasons and more we changed the name, but also the narrative of the tour. The narrative now tells the story of the different traditions that the Congdon family had during Christmas. For example, the Gardener was instructed to seed Pointsettas in the Greenhouse and then during Christmas they would be distributed throughout Duluth to friends and family of the Congdons. It was said that over 150 plants would be given out.

Just to make sure we were not excluding people of other faiths and traditions we worked with Paula Pederson of the University of Minnesota Duluth, who is serving as Faculty Fellow for Intercultural Initiatives. Paula provided many great suggestions, which we have incorporated into our narrative. One of her suggestions would be to invite a gathering of people of other faiths to take the tour and ask their opinions of the tour, just to make sure the tour is the least offensive and respectful. We are hoping to do this in the coming weeks.

What else is new this year?

1. Free Hot Cocoa/Coffee in the Carriage House provided by Hermantown Federal Credit Union. By the way, it is made by Duluth Coffee Company. Some say it is the best hot cocoa they have ever had.
2. Take a photo in our new replica Portland Cutter Sleigh. How often do you get to sit inside a vintage historic sleigh? Well here is your chance.
3. Find all the elves. In an effort to keep your children busy while on the tour, we have hidden 12 Christmas elves throughout the house. I dare you to find them all. Good luck.

One of the 12 elves that are hidden throughout the mansion during the Christmas season

4. Lastly, every year we buy more and more decorations just to make the home as festive as possible. For example, we added over 500ft of Christmas lights to the London Road fence line. Our Ticket House now has a real Christmas Tree, brought to us by Farmer Doug the tree farmer.

So don’t miss your chance to see Glensheen all decked out for the Christmas season.

Marjorie’s room decorated for the Christmas season