By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

The Calvin B. Taylor House Museum in Berlin is ushering in the Christmas season with two events intended to celebrate local history, engage families and town residents, and offer a unique shopping experience, all while showcasing the museum in its cozy, holiday candlelit setting.

Taylor House President Melissa Reid said this year’s seasonal lineup includes the annual “Kids’ Wassail and Gingerbread” event, a day of local vendors, as well as the museum’s popular children’s tours, which highlight the historic home decorated for the holidays and offer a look at an 1830s-inspired dessert course recreated exclusively for December.

On Saturday, Dec. 6, the museum will host a combined Sip and Shop and Kids’ Wassail and Gingerbread event from noon to 4 p.m. Previously, the two traditions were held on the same day, but at different times. This year, the children will can occupy themselves with activities geared toward them, while the adults can enjoy a holiday cocktail and scope out local vendors and the Taylor House’s gift shop.

“We realized we had lots and lots of families come out for the Wassail and Gingerbread and we realized instead of making it two separate events…if you’re going to come and do a kids activity, then while you’re here, you may as well have the opportunity to look at these handcrafted gifts,” Reid said.

“We thought it made sense to put the event all together as opposed to spreading it out. It used to go from 12 p.m. to like 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., and that just felt long and spread out. We had a lot more people who came to the kids’ event, so we thought we would try to put them together and see how that goes.”

The afternoon will feature the return of children’s activities, such as make-and-take crafts and popular pine-cone bird feeders rolled in peanut butter and seed. Kids can also have gingerbread and a cup of wassail, a historic holiday drink similar to apple cider.

While the kids are entertained, local artisans will set up shop throughout the museum to offer hand-crafted holiday presents. Attendees can also browse the Taylor House’s gift shop, which now includes a custom jigsaw puzzle featuring the museum, a paint-by-numbers set of the historic home, and new ornaments, including one created in collaboration with Worcester Technical High School, and miniature framed prints of the building by artist Clare Hoerl, which can also be hung from a Christmas tree. Reid added that Hoerl sells her work at Baked in Berlin.

All proceeds from Sip and Shop directly support the museum.

“It’s a nice way to come and get some handcrafted or locally focused gifts,” the Taylor House’s president noted.

Organizers hope that combining the kids and the shopping event, and holding it during the daytime, will improve the experience.

Later this month, on Sunday, Dec. 14, the museum will continue its tradition of second-Sunday programs with two interactive children’s tours at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. The candlelit tours are designed to bring the historic house to life through storytelling and hands-on activities tied to the Christmas season.

“It gives kids an opportunity to see a historic house, but in a way that’s a little more interactive and fun,” Reid said.

During the kids’ tours, the youngsters will have flashlights and will be instructed to look for hidden objects throughout the museum.

Additionally, at both the Sip and Shop event and the children’s walkthroughs, visitors can view the museum’s recreated dessert course from the 1830s — a display constructed with the help of food historian Joyce White.

The exhibit includes  replicas of molded gelatin desserts, plum pudding, tarts, gingerbread, and even ice cream scoops. The ice cream was added because, according to Reid, the 1845 estate records show that the original homeowner, Isaac Covington, owned an early ice cream maker, a luxury at the time.

Reid said that White has studied food history extensively, including in England, and has used her expertise to bring an exhibit to the Taylor House Museum, exclusively for the weeks leading up to the holidays.

“This fake food is grounded in very thorough and very rigorous historical research,” Reid said. “It allows people to get in touch with the past in a way that maybe just displaying an empty dining room table does not…Everyone loves the holidays, and people have traditions that are important to their own family. We wanted to show that those traditions go back and that history is part of tradition and tradition is part of history.”

These two December events allow the museum to continue telling the town’s stories, even during the facility’s offseason. The Taylor House opens for tours in the spring and closes at the end of October. Reid said that touring the museum during the summer and Christmas is an entirely different experience.

“Right now, we’re open April through October,” she said. “What is amazing is to see the house lit up by candlelight during the off-season…

“If you’ve come and taken a tour in the summertime during the day, the museum, especially the historic rooms, is radically different at night, lit by candlelight. [These events] allow someone who’s been at the museum to see it in a different way.”