Come to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center this holiday season to learn how and why 19th-century reformers transformed Christmas holiday celebrations.  Discover the significance of Christmas games, toys, books and other artifacts to changing cultural traditions.   

Take a special themed tour of the Stowe House: Christmas at the Stowe's.   In the Stowe House, visitors will see traditional historic holiday decorations, including the Stowe family’s Holly punch bowl, a tree with ornaments in the style of those described in family letters, beribboned late 19^th-century Victorian mercury balls, presents  readied for wrapping, and plentiful greens and red alder berries.

The tour includes a visit to the Katharine Day House to view the exhibition, Reforming the Season: Nineteenth-Century Reformers and Christmas showcasing rarely seen items from the Stowe Center collections and archives. You can explore the changes in holiday celebrations as Americans sought to move away from bacchanalian festivities and focused on family and community. View the popular 19^th-century images and objects, including etchings, greeting card images, Christmas toys, musical horns and sleds. 

Rooted in Reform: Portraits of a Family, also on display in the Day House,is an exhibition of portraits of Stowe and members of her extended family, inlcuding Lyman Beecher, George Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, John Hooker, Calvin Day, Katharine Seymour Day and Georgiana Stowe Allen.

Admission to these exhibits is included with house tour admission.

Stowe House tour admission is $9. Adult; $8 Seniors; $6. Children (5-16). Tours are offered Wednesday- Saturday 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM and Sunday, 12 Noon – 4:30 PM. During the week following Christmas, the Stowe Center will be open Monday- Saturday from 9:30AM-4:30PM.

 Bring a non-perishable food item for Loaves & Fishes Pantry Ministry and receive $1. off admission.

 The Museum Store in the Visitor Center features special holiday gifts and books. Look for Stowe’s The First Christmas in New England; sparkling Victorian glass ornaments; writing tools; books, and much more! Members receive a 10% discount on purchases.  

Closed December 24 and 25.