The National Christmas Center and Museum is located in Paradise, Pennsylvania, better known as being located in Lancaster County. Yes, this is the same county that is famous for drawing in millions of tourists from around the world ever year to visit Amish Country.
One of the best family attractions in Lancaster County is the National Christmas Center & Museum. We had the opportunity to visit a few weeks ago and loved our visit so much, that we’re going to take the grandchildren every year. It’s great fun for BOTH adults and children…plus, their admission fees are very affordable!
This is a self-guided tour and you can take your leisurely time throughout the museum. You’ll find hundreds upon hundreds of decorated Christmas trees and the majority of them are done in a particular theme, some themes are from around the world and other’s are from the U.S.A. The majority of them are decorated in vintage and antique ornaments and a few are done in a more modern style.
There are a ton of exhibits as you walk through. You’ll see life-size exhibits that focus on anything and everything that has to do with Christmas. Some of them are based around popular holiday movies, vintage holiday toys & stuffed animals, Santa Claus & Father Christmas (from all around the world), etc. The exhibits we loved were the animated ones and the ones that featured polar bears & reindeer.
The grandchildren loved seeing the thousands upon thousands of brightly colored holiday lights that decorate the exhibits and/or Christmas trees. It is really cool to see how people decorated their homes for the holiday back in the early 20th century and up through more modern times. Hubby loved the exhibits based around the 1960’s, since those were his childhood memories.
In the one area I really enjoyed learning more about Santa Claus and seeing how his image changed over the years. I saw a figurine and photograph of what he looked like 150 years ago and his image back then didn’t look child-friendly to me at all. I’m glad that in modern times he’s changed his look and now looks jolly and definitely kid-friendly! In addition, hundreds of year’s ago…he was more on the slender side and now that he’s eaten millions of cookies over the years…he’s more plump! LOL
The National Christmas Center & Museum is open I believe 9 months out of the year, so if you’re ever in the area or passing through, this is one fun and amazing place to visit! Locals love to visit every year and many families make it an annual holiday tradition.
I’m featuring several photos in my travel post today to give you a feel for the place. It’s truly “magical” and we’re looking forward to visiting again next year!
I would love to visit this museum both with my grandkids and by myself. I know that I would enjoy seeing all the different exhibits and the way that Santa Claus has changed over the years.
I would love to go here and see all of the beautiful tree and especially the dolls.
This looks like such a fun adventure to take with the grandkids. So much to see and so much history to learn about. I know we don’t have anything quite like that in my area. Wish we did.
I think this would be interesting. I have always like history, nd this would show how things have changed over the years. I tink this would be really good for kids to see it wasnt as commercialized too. I love how many things it looks like there are to see!
Very neat! That place definitely looks like Christmas. I didn’t know about this place, but it would be fun to visit with kids!
That would be a great place to visit every year to get in the Christmas Spirit. Too bad it’s 2,000 miles from me.
I never knew that there was a museum like this. I could spend several days in this museum. What a wonderful thing to take the kids to.
This would be such a fun museum to visit. Everything is so beautifully decorated! Looks amazing!
(Our Visit to the National Christmas Center & Museum) This place sounds truly wonderful, so many great and beautiful things to see for Christmas. I bet the kids loved it too!
This place looks like a lot of fun! The ultimate Christmas visit. We have a Christmas store in my town but we do not have a museum. I love that it is self guided so you can just take your time.