Holiday Celebrations

19th century game board.

NPS photo

Annual Holiday Open House

The return of these annual holidays is the signal for bringing friends together, and uniting around the family fireside.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1828

Friday, December 12, 2025
1:00-4:00 pm, 5:00-8:00 pm

Special stories, including books and oral traditions, have long brought families together around the holidays. The Longfellow family especially cherished the stories – and occasional company – of Charles Dickens during the holiday season. In 1864, Longfellow would add his own words to the catalog of treasured Christmas stories with his poem “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” a call for “peace on Earth & goodwill to men” during the American Civil War.

Enjoy a luminaria display on the grounds and stroll the halls of the Longfellow House, decorated in period style and featuring live harp music and special seasonal objects from the site's museum collection.

More details coming soon!

Thank you to the Friends of the Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy for supporting this annual event.

 

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  Holiday Baking Extravaganza

  Watch staff tackle making festive historic foods, and get the recipes to try it yourself!

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  Christmas Bells

  Set to music early on, the poem "Christmas Bells" became part of the Christmas carol canon.

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  Hands on History: Holidays!

  Join our rangers as they try out crafts the Longfellow children would have made for the holidays