Gingerbread Houses, ‘Jolly Ole St. Nick’ and Holiday Shopping at Durand-Hedden

All ages will enjoy exploring this captivating display of inventive entries to the 2014 Durand-Hedden Gingerbread House Competition. (Interested in being a contestant? Enter by December 4. See www.durandhedden.org for details and entry form.) Don’t forget to bring a camera to catch a photo of your children with our real live “Victorian Santa.” Shop the Country Store to find inexpensive and unique gifts for family, friends and teachers, while benefiting the Durand-Hedden House. The historic-themed selection includes: early American children’s games and toys, facsimile documents, quill pens and ink, historic cookbooks, cookie molds, tin lanterns, hand-blown blue birds, reproductive decorative items and ceramics, movie posters from the 1990’s, and more. The hard-to-find original Doors of Maplewood poster and Smile, the history of Olympic Park, will also be available. No need to go to the mall!

Visitors will also be able to peruse the exhibit, The Maplewood Theater: Its Forgotten Saga, which explores the ever-changing 87-year history of the Maplewood Theater, spanning silent films, vaudeville, talkies, a famed era of live theater, neighborhood cinema, and the current sixplex.
The Durand-Hedden House is dedicated to telling the history of the development of Maplewood and the surrounding area in new and engaging ways. It is located in Grasmere Park at 523 Ridgewood Road in Maplewood. For more information or to arrange group tours call 973-763-7712.