2025 Lantern Tours

Our ever-popular Lantern Tours are back! For 2025, we do have a few changes due to our on-going construction, but the skits and holiday atmosphere will be just as enjoyable as ever! The tour will begin at our Temporary Ticketing and will be a lantern-lit walking tour stopping at 17th century England, 18th century Ireland (both forge and farm), 18th century Germany, and end in our Lecture Hall for refreshments and our final sketch set in 1850s Virginia. Please remember that this is an outdoor walking tour that will occur rain or shine, please plan to dress appropriately. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours here: https://frontierculturemuseum.shop.koronaevent.com/en/offers/t568. Tours leave Temporary Ticketing every half hour from 5:30-8:00 pm and last around an hour and a half. 17th century England The future King Charles II and the Scottish army do not do well during the last of the English Civil Wars. This puts the Scottish government and King Charles on the run. We enter into the home of the Woodhouse family in Hartlebury, Worcestershire, on a Christmas many years later and learn how a moment of kindness helped a King. 18th century Irish Forge Times are tough for an Irish blacksmith with many people, especially wayward apprentices, being drawn toward the New World and the chance to own land. What to do when an apprentice runs away? 18th century Irish Farm A young man returns to the County Tyrone countryside of his childhood to find that many people he remembers have left for America or London. Disoriented, he encounters the home of some former acquaintances, a mother who thinks that he stole their pig and ran away, and her daughter, who remembers playing with him and having a crush on him. 18th century German Farm It’s a bit of a chaotic Christmas season in a household packing to move to America. The young daughter, concerned about the things she’s heard about no Christmas in America, is cheered up by a classic children’s tale. 1850s Virginia Balls were common entertainments in the mid-19th century at the holidays. Social gatherings like this were excellent ways for younger women, often working on their parents farms until marriage, to meet new people and show off their fashion sense. Of course, sibling tensions can rise at any time and when two young ladies get ready at the same time…not even the Christmas spirit can prevent it!