Children’s Christmas quizzes at the City Museum
During the festive season Winchester City Council’s museums service is inviting families to come and test their powers of observation in two free fun children’s quizzes at the City Museum in the Square.
Curators have searched the museum stores for objects from “Christmas Past” and have hidden them around the museum for you to find. There are a variety of interesting seasonal objects to locate, reminders of the way Christmas used to be celebrated by our parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. These items are normally held in the reserve collections so are on show especially for Christmas.
Amongst the objects you will discover as you explore the museum are a small 1950s silver Christmas tree; old-fashioned Edwardian ice skates, and a hand-embroidered Christmas card sent from the battlefields of World War I. Also from the First World War is a Christmas gift tin sent by Princess Mary to troops on the Western Front in 1914 that would have contained cigarettes, tobacco or perhaps chocolate, along with a card and photo from the Princess.
For the little ones, the museum has put together a reindeer spotter quiz, inspired by the image of a deer shown on a medieval tile on display in the museum. Our herd of Santa’s reindeer is scattered all around the museum for children to “round up” before the big day – they might even spot Rudolph himself!
Successful eagle-eyed history detectives and reindeer spotters will be rewarded with a small but tasty prize. You can have a go at the quizzes from Saturday 13th December 2008 to Sunday 4th January 2009.
Robin Iles, Education Officer for Winchester Museums, commented: “With two new quizzes to try out, why not escape the cold and rain and the crowds of last minute shoppers for a warm welcome and a spot of free fun for all the family at the City Museum this Christmas?”
Admission is free. The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am – 4pm, Sunday noon – 4pm . The museum will be closed the afternoon of Wednesday 24th December and on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th December. It re-opens on Saturday 27th December from 10am to 4pm.