Naper Settlement to forget about Christmas memories

Another Naper Settlement event will soon be just a memory.

The 19th-century living-history museum announced it is canceling its annual Christmas Memories celebration due to budgetary constraints.

The museum just recently announced it also would be retiring Naper Days, a Father's Day weekend event.

Christmas Memories is "an event that we love, and love doing it, and it has a lot of appeal in the community," said John Buckley, the settlement's director of institutional advancement. "It's just not one financially, like Naper Days, we can do right now."

The Naperville Heritage Society started the event in 1972 as "Christmas at the Chapel." The festivities were held at the newly restored Century Memorial Chapel and featured musicians and vocalists, according to the settlement.

More recent celebrations have included a play area with old-fashioned toys, characters such as Santa and Mrs. Claus, pony rides, face-painting, ice sculptures and sky lantern launches.

"It's a great holiday event," Buckley said. "You get a little snow on the ground and it has that wonderful holiday feeling."

Buckley is not ruling out the possibility of bringing Christmas Memories back if there is enough interest from sponsors. In the meantime, the settlement still has an array of holiday activities such as Victorian Holiday Traditions on Dec. 5 and 13, and The Legend of St. Nicholas on Dec. 6.

"We do have new things coming on," Buckley said. "They're different, they're fun, they're on a smaller scale but still engaging. It's not the same but people will appreciate what we're trying to offer and what we're doing for the community."

For a full schedule of events visit napersetttlement.org.