Saturday, December 10, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Cookies and apple cider will warm the day at the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Holiday Open House on Saturday, December 10. Entertainment will be provided by the Smokyland Sound Chorus of the Greater Knoxville Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Activities include craft demonstrations and the sale of handmade items, free ornament and craft making for the kids, and holiday refreshments. Local crafter Karen Micheletta will have a selection of her handmade items made from antique quilts to purchase. ETHS staff will lead a special activity called “A Christmas Story: Traditions Old and New from Me to You,” where audience members, young and old, will contribute to a composition of Christmas memories from yesterday and today to create a unique Christmas story or poem.

 

Visitors are invited to browse the ETHS Museum Store for a 10% discount on a great selection of traditional gifts, history books, and children’s items. The 10% public discount is good for this day only. ETHS members receive a 10% discount throughout the year and 15% off throughout the month of December. Looking for the gift that gives all year? Pick up a gift membership and your loved ones will receive publications and special benefits throughout the year.

 

Museum admission is free for the day. On display is a beautifully hand-carved crèche (above right) made in Germany and brought to East Tennessee by the immigrant Fickey family in 1883. Family legend indicates that it had origins in the Fickeys’ home district of Erzgebirge some 150 years before being brought to this country. Other exhibits currently on view include the feature exhibition Rock of Ages: East Tennessee’s Marble Industry, an East Tennessee Streetscape and Corner Drug Store, and Voices of the Land: The People of East Tennessee, a look at 300 years of history, from the Cherokee to the 1982 World’s Fair. Also on exhibit is Loving Earl Terrell: A Man and His Bike, about the Powell man who chose to live a simpler life in the woods of North Knoxville. Through January 2 the public is invited to bring a donation of a personal care item for Knoxville Pays it Forward and receive free museum admission.

 

Holiday Open House events are free and open to the public from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. The Museum of East Tennessee is located at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville. For more information, visit www.eastTNhistory.org or call 865-215-8824.