Naper Settlement has a new exhibit for the holiday season that delves into the history and folklore of Christmas in different countries across the globe.
Naper Settlement’s Santas Around the World Exhibit”
“Santas Around the World is an exploration of all of the different characters that populate the mythology around the winter solstice. The winter solstice is the darkest day of the year. It’s the shortest day. People would gather together with their families and eat specific foods and do specific kinds of dances and celebrations in order to get them through the darkest time of the year,” said Naper Settlement Exhibits Team Leader Dina Spoerl.
The exhibit includes photos of some of the Santas worldwide, positioned in front of picture frames to allow guests to take the perfect “Santa selfie.” But there’s more to the exhibit than just Santa stats.
“We found out lots of interesting traditions around food and gathering and specific recipes that people have in different countries for their traditional foods, as well as dances and celebrations and all kinds of interesting things. We have some Christmas decoration artifacts in the other gallery, and then we have artifacts relating to Christmas cards in this gallery because we were interested to find out when people started to send Christmas cards and other kinds of things that we associate with Christmas now,” said Spoerl.
Exploring the Global Holiday Spirit
The Santas Around the World Exhibit will be on display to the public until January 5 and will be open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The exhibit was timed in tandem with Naper Settlement’s Holly Jolly Days, a family craft, activity, and storytelling event taking place December 8, 9,15, and 16.
Spoerl believes the new exhibit will give guests some new insights into the holiday standards.
“We thought it would be a fun way for our families to find out about some of the origins of the holiday traditions that we have,” said Spoerl.
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