Durant House to offer 'Christmas on the Prairie'

The joys of Christmas' past will thrive from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12 and Sunday, Dec. 13 at the 1843 Durant House Museum and one-room Pioneer Sholes School. Visitors are invited to celebrate the season and discover local history's many charms at the historic sites' Candlelight Open House.

Costumed docents will welcome visitors into the warm glow of the candlelit prairie homestead. Special guided tours of the Durant House Museum will be offered amid the scent of freshly shorn evergreens and an old-fashioned parlor Christmas tree. Guests can savor hot cider and baked goods aplenty next to the roaring hearth; including succulent ginger cakes made from a circa 1840 Illinois recipe.

This delightful annual celebration features live music, dramatic performances of heirloom plays, and holiday stories. A rare treat, the Christmas letters written in 1896 by Durant grandchildren to their grandparents will be on display - original remembrances that impart a very personal glimpse of holiday sentiments 113 years ago.

A veritable Winter Wonderland will be presented the 1872 Sholes School, just across the street from Durant House. Visitors are encouraged to participate in the historic re-enactments scheduled at 3:30 p.m. on both days. Materials will also be on hand for children and all those young at heart to create antique Christmas crafts of their own. A tree trimmed by local schoolchildren and a carol "sing along" will add to the merriment. The Sholes School Society and St. Charles Key Club will provide refreshments.

Admission for the event is $3. No reservations necessary. Both sites are located in the LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve, off Dean Street west of Randall Road in St. Charles.

The Living History programs at the Durant House Museum are sponsored by Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley, with support from the Forest Preserve District of Kane County. For information call (630) 377-6424, e-mail duranthouse1843@yahoo.com, or visit www.ppfv.org.