Christmas at the Queens County Museum

The Queens County Museum’s Christmas Display is back for another year, and each year it seems to get bigger and better.

The display is always popular with the children, and the museum runs a Christmas Program centred on the display for all the elementary school students. Last year, Museum Director Linda Rafuse estimates they had over 700 children take part in the Museum’s Christmas program. It’s become part of the school’s traditions, says Rafuse.

Rafuse says the children love to see all the toys, many of which come from their parents or grandparents generations. The museum has a huge collection of Transformer toys from the 1980’s, donated by people that now have their own children.

There’s also a section devoted to Dr. Suess, a transformer tree and a beanie baby tree on display. The museum also has a vast doll collection on display, donated by Verna MacDougal in 2007 that will be displayed every Christmas.

Part of the program for children also talks about evolution of toys, and how many of the Christmas traditions began. The Victorian parlor is set up with a traditional Christmas tree, and the children will learn about where the tree tradition came from among other things.

This year they also have a multicultural tree set up, decorated with straw ornaments. The children will learn about how Christmas is celebrated throughout the world.

After learning about all the different traditions, the children do a craft, get a treat, and then help create Magic Reindeer Food, a special blend created by the museum staff to help Santa’s Reindeer on their journey.

The display is of course open to the young at heart adults, and every visitor will come away with their own packet of Magic Reindeer Food.

It takes a lot of work to set up the display, and many organizations contribute to the museum specifically for this display. “We couldn’t do this display without the support of the community,” says Rafuse.

Local organizations like the Lion’s Club contribute to the museum, and many individuals come out to show their support as well through donations. This year, a reindeer display was donated from a gentleman in Pugwash, and the museum even received a financial contribution from overseas.

The Queens County Museum’s Christmas display is open now, and will run until Christmas.

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