Christmas Festival
Our Christmas Festival happens the first Sunday in December, and is one of our most popular events each year.
It features our stunning World Nativities exhibition, which includes highlights from Glencairn's collection of more than three hundred Nativity sets from around the world. You can also enjoy holiday refreshments at the Castle Cafe, live Christmas music, a family activity and a Christmas Quest. Finish up your visit by getting some of your holiday shopping done at Glencairn's gift shop and a Ten Thousand Village sale!
VIEW photos from the Glad Tidings Festival.
2011 Glad Tidings Press Release
Christmas festivities include exhibition, opening Nov. 25, & ‘Sing’ Dec. 13.
Glencairn Museum’s ‘Glad Tidings’ celebration Dec. 4 features international crèches, world crafts, music, activities.
A Christmas tree adorned with antique ornaments. Costumed musicians performing medieval holiday music. A rare collection of more than 36 Nativity sets from 17 different countries. An interactive quest for Nativity art dating from medieval times through the 20th century. And a Ten Thousand Villages sale with goods from around the world.
Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn sparkles this Christmas season with attractions like these and more at its annual event, “Glad Tidings: A Celebration of Christmas,” from 1 to 5 p.m. Dec. 4.
“Glad Tidings” offers an interactive family activity that sends visitors on a hunt for Nativity art throughout Glencairn, a museum of religious art and history housed in a nine-story Romanesque-style castle at 1001 Cathedral Rd. Live medieval music will be provided by Paul Butler, performing with “Musica Sine Nomine” composed of Stephen Bloch and Deborah Peters. The musicians will wear medieval-style clothing and play replica medieval instruments, including rebec, vielle, hurdy-gurdy, recorders, shawms, citole, harp and percussion. Their sets will include a variety of medieval holiday music from across Europe, with songs representing England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
Guests can take a ride to the top of Glencairn’s tower for a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. Refreshments can be found at the Castle Café, with treats by Elcy’s Café in Glenside and locally-roasted coffee by Valley Green Coffee Company. Glencairn’s gift shop will be open for early holiday shopping.
In addition, Glencairn will be hosting an International Gift Festival of items hand made by skilled artisans from around the world. Marketed by Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit fair trade organization based in Akron, Pa., items will include hand loomed textiles, pottery, jewelry, baskets, musical instruments, cards, toys and a variety of Nativities. The International Gift Festival will be offered through Dec. 10. Hours are 1- 5 p.m., Dec. 4; noon to 4:30 p.m., Dec. 5-10. Weekday admission is free, but donations are welcomed.
Admission to the Dec. 4 event is $8; $6 for seniors and students with ID, and free for museum members and children under four. Glencairn will offer a $20 family cap on admission for up to four individuals per household, with half price charged for additional guests in the party.
The “Glad Tidings” activities are just part of the seasonal festivities at Glencairn. On Nov. 25, the exhibition “Follow the Star: World Nativities,” opens at the museum. The exhibition is a showcase of Nativity sets from around the globe including some from countries like Egypt and Ethiopia not traditionally associated with the crèche. As part of the exhibition, artistic settings for the Nativity figures have been created by Bryn Athyn artisan Kathleen Glenn Pitcairn.
To enhance the annual exhibition, the museum also is launching an online tour on its Web site titled, “Do You See What I See? Imagery in Nativity Scenes.” “The Christmas story as represented in a Nativity is inspired by events described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke,” said Ed Gyllenhaal, Glencairn’s curator. “However, many of these scenes also incorporate non-biblical Christian texts and legends. Learning about the history of these traditions can lead to a better understanding and appreciation of Nativities.”
Most of the Nativities on exhibit have been gifted to Glencairn by members of The Friends of the Creche, a national organization. This year’s exhibition features crèches donated by Alan and Mary Liz Pomeroy of West Chester, Pa., and by Brother Bob Reinke, a Franciscan friar who is a pastoral associate at St. Ann’s Church in Hoboken, N.J., and founder of a community-based agency FAITH (Franciscan AIDS Initiative to Help) Services.
Brother Bob, whose special love of Christmas earned him the nickname “Brother Christmas,” also has donated a glazed tile-painting of St. Francis depicting the famous founder of the Franciscans at the site of a live Nativity scene, a tradition he is credited with popularizing. The Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis was founded on Christmas Eve in 1857, before a Nativity scene in a chapel in Aachen, Germany.
In addition to the early 20th Century crèche donations to Glencairn, Brother Bob, who recently celebrated his 50th jubilee as a Brother, also has given the museum his personal collection of antique tree ornaments, gathered over his lifetime. A tree decorated with these ornaments will be on exhibit in Glencairn’s Great Hall.
“Follow the Star” hours are: 1 to 5 p.m. Dec. 4; noon to 4:30 p.m., Monday-Saturday Nov. 25 through Jan. 14; closed on other Sundays, as well as Dec. 12, 13, 14 and 24. Admission is by donation. For more information, call the museum at 267-502-2990.
The seasonal celebration at Glencairn also features the “Glencairn Christmas Sing” at 8 p.m., Dec. 13, a tradition at Glencairn since 1937. The event features soloists, audience caroling and readings from the Christmas story, plus a performance by the Glencairn Horns, a group composed of current and former members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Admission is by donation and free for Bryn Athyn College and Academy of the New Church students. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Seating limited to 300.
For more information about the Christmas activities at Glencairn, visit www.glencairnmuseum.org or call 267-502-2600.
Caption information:
This Neapolitan presepio (Nativity scene) is the work of the Giuseppe and Marco Ferrigno workshop, a fourth-generation family business in Naples, Italy. The faces, hands, lower legs, and feet of their figures are made of terracotta, which is then painted. Most of the figures have glass eyes. Other parts of the body are constructed with wire wrapped in cloth so that each figure can be posed. The clothing for each character is handmade in the 18th century style, draped in San Leucio silks. The Ferrigno family began making presepi in Naples in 1836.