Museum Modifies Annual Old-Fashioned Christmas Family Day

Old Independence Regional Museum will offer a modified version of its annual Old-Fashioned Christmas Family Day. “During this pandemic, we still want families to be able to celebrate the holidays with old-fashioned crafts and activities despite limited gatherings. Therefore, families are invited to stop by the museum to collect a free activity kit to take home with them.” Kits may be picked up in the museum gift shop, located at 9th & Vine Streets in Batesville, on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, December 10-12, from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

Each kit contains supplies for a variety of activities, including brown paper and stencils for small hands to make their own garland, yarn to create mini ornaments to celebrate the usefulness and popularity of knit hats, and colored paper and wooden beads to fashion Christmas poinsettias. Packaging from the activity kit can even be made into a luminary! Traditionally, family day attendees would make dough ornaments on site, so supplies will be included to make cinnamon dough at home. In lieu of decorating cookies, families can study historic baking recipes to compare to modern-day sweets. The free kits can be picked up in the museum gift shop, one per child while supplies last.

The museum gift shop has several new items for your holiday shopping including ornaments, travel mugs, and coasters. Items feature historic images of Independence County such as steamboats, bridges, and buildings, as well as the new Independence County seal and flag. Independence County bicentennial coins are also available in silver or bronze. The gift shop carries books and toys, as well as a variety of educational, local, and handcrafted items, many of which are priced for small pockets. Gift wrapping is available upon request.

To request curbside service, please call (870) 793-2121.

Museum hours during the COVID-19 pandemic are: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $5.00 for adults, $3.00 for seniors, students, and military personnel, $2.00 for children 6-12, and free for children 5 and under. The museum is located at 380 South 9th street, between Boswell and Vine Streets in Batesville.

Old Independence is a regional museum serving a 12-county area: Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff. Parts of these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820’s Arkansas territory.

This humanities program is made possible by local support from Independence County and the City of Batesville, as well as by Challenge Grant Endowment funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.