There is an ever-changing variety of special events at Hearthstone.
Please scroll below for details.
Victorian Christmas: Traditions… Evening Open Houses
FRIDAYS AND SATURDAY EVENINGS from Nov 30 - Dec 28 starting at 6:00 pm each evening.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children (children under five are free).
A holiday tradition continues as once again each room of Hearthstone is overflowing with Christmas decorations that bring to life this season of merriment and wonder.
As always, there is a new theme this year with all decorations hand-crafted to match by our dedicated curation staff and volunteers and with the advice and help of Fox Valley Technical Colleges’ school of design students. The result is stunning room-after-room of literal works of art that bring to life the best of Victorian Christmas traditions.
The evening events are “open-house” type of affairs with no set guided tour. Rather, holiday merry-makers are encouraged to wander from room to room to take in the sights at their own pace. Our holiday “welcomers” will be on-hand in each room, wearing their Victorian holiday finest, to welcome you in and explain Victorian holiday traditions or answer any questions that may arise. The evenings also feature live performances of traditional Christmas carols played on our 1875 Kranich and Bach square grand piano as well as other musical guests.
Please note that here are two additional ways to see the beautiful decorations:
Regular daytime tours. The decorated rooms are included in every day-time tour of Hearthstone. Tickets are available here and as walk-ups. Please note that the holiday decorations are not the focus of these guided tours which cover the technological, historic, and artistic significance of the residence.
Special daytime tours entitled How Victorians Invented Christmas. The stories behind how we still celebrate secular Christmas are front and center in this guided tour. Please scroll below for additional details and tickets.
Our evening guests are encouraged to linger as long as they like (though we do close by 8:30 pm). However, GUESTS MUST ARRIVE DURING THE ENTRY TIMES STATED ON THEIR TICKETS.
Please note:
To fully participate in the tours, guests must be able to climb a long set of stairs to the second floor.
The parking lot fills up quickly but there is ample free parking one half block away from the museum on State Street.
Because of high demand for this evening event and the potential for overcrowding, tour tickets should be purchased on-line through this website.
A limited number of walk-up tickets may be available for specific entry windows. However, tickets can sell out quickly and availability cannot be guaranteed.
Tickets are for specific dates and entry times as listed on every e-ticket confirmation sent via email (please make sure that your email address is accurate when buying tickets).
E-tickets MUST be used for their stated times and dates. Unfortunately, there can be no exceptions.
To purchase tickets for the evening events, please start by selecting a date:
Fridays Saturdays
How Victorians Invented Christmas…
A Special Victorian Christmas Traditions Tour
FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS, DEC 6 - 28 AT 11:00 AM AND 2:00 PM.
$15.00
Join Hearthstone’s Executive Director George Schroeder on a special tour that explores how almost every one of today’s popular holiday secular traditions - from decorating trees to sending cards to caroling to even eating turkey dinner - started in the Victorian Era.
The tours are 90 minutes in length and visit each room of the residence focusing on the lavish holiday decorations that bring to life the finest in Victorian Christmas celebrations.
Guests will not only be amazed at how relatively recent the secular celebration has developed. They will also be armed with enough Christmas trivia to wow those gathered at any family gathering!
Each guest will also receive, as a small holiday gift from Hearthstone, recipe cards featuring favorite Victorian Christmas fare and a booklet detailing the museum’s 2024 theme Victorian Christmas: Traditions.
Photo of Edward H. Johnson’s first electric Christmas tree lights in 1882. Library of Congress.
Edison and Christmas Lights
Saturday, December 14, 4:00 pm
$15.00
Only three months after Hearthstone was the first house in the world to be lit with hydroelectricity using the Edison system, William Augustus Croffut wrote in December of 1882 in the Detroit Post and Tribune that…
“Last evening I walked over beyond Fifth Avenue and called at the residence of Edward H. Johnson, vice-president of Edison’s electric company. There, at the rear of the beautiful parlors, was a large Christmas tree, presenting a most picturesque and uncanny aspect. It was brilliantly lighted with many colored globes about as large as an English walnut and was turning some six times a minute on a little pine box. There were eighty lights in all encased in these dainty glass eggs, and about equally divided between white, red and blue. As the tree turned, the colors alternated, all the lamps going out and being relit at every revolution. The result was a continuous twinkling of dancing colors, red, white and blue, all evening.
The magic of Christmas lights was born.
Presented by Edison experts Robin & Joan Rolfs and Scott Malawski, authors of Edison and Christmas Tree Lights, this truly magical tour will highlight the evolution of Christmas lighting from this beginning, with just 80 miniature hand-blown bulbs, to the holiday staple, and giant industry, that it is today.
Following the 60 minute presentation, guests will tour of the Christmas light exhibit. The beautifully decorated rooms of Hearthstone will put everyone in the Christmas spirit.