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There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays: A Brandywine Christmas

(October 2007, #080)

For Immediate Release

CHADDS FORD, PA — The Brandywine River Museum celebrates the holiday season with A Brandywine Christmas, November 23, 2007 through January 6, 2008. The young and the young at heart can enjoy fabulous displays including an extensive O-gauge model railroad, an elaborate Victorian dollhouse, and thousands of whimsical critters on holiday trees.

Jerry Pinkney: Aesop's Fables and Other Tails, an exhibition featuring original illustrations by Jerry Pinkney, will be on view during A Brandywine Christmas. Pinkney, winner of five Caldecott Honor Medals and five Coretta Scott King Awards, has interpreted animals from such well-known fables as The Tortoise and the Hare and The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. His delightful and enormously skillful watercolors will bring joy to children of all ages.

A family favorite returning this year are dolls from the Ann Wyeth McCoy collection. Dressed in antique doll clothing or in costumes designed and sewn by Mrs. McCoy, the dolls are posed in a festive outdoor holiday setting. Mrs. McCoy's daughters and son generously donated these rare dolls to the museum, ensuring that the Brandywine River Museum will continue to share this Christmas tradition with its visitors in years to come.

A century-old Victorian dollhouse will also be on view, complete with most of its original furnishings and all but one of its original bisque dolls. The front of the eleven-room house opens wide to reveal the elegant interior typical of Victorian life. The house contains a collection of musical instruments and a nursery with its own dollhouse. The dollhouse belonged to Sarah Scaife and is shown through the courtesy of Richard Scaife.

An integral part of A Brandywine Christmas is the museum's O-gauge train display. The trains run simultaneously on more than 2,000 feet of track, winding past a village, stone quarry, oil refinery, mountains, Herr Foods plant and running waterfall, as Santa and his sleigh fly overhead. The "rail cam," mounted on a snowplow, gives visitors a view from the perspective of a miniature locomotive driver. New to the fleet of trains this year is a deluxe passenger train, The California Zephyr. Back by popular demand, Thomas the Tank Engine, his friends Toby and Percy, and others will again entertain the youngest visitors.

Charming "critters" will once more decorate holiday trees, wreaths, and diorama settings throughout the museum. These cleverly designed ornaments, made from all-natural materials by museum volunteers, have adorned Christmas trees at the White House and have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution. Critters may also be purchased at the museum's Annual Critter Sale on Saturday, December 1, and Sunday, December 2, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Cash, check, Visa or MasterCard is accepted. Following the sale, critters can be purchased in the Museum Shop. Proceeds from the sale benefit the Volunteers' Art Purchase Fund.

Primary sponsors for this year's A Brandywine Christmas are Citi, The Snelling Group at Smith Barney, Herr Foods Inc., and The Frelinghuysen Foundation.

Due to the large number of visitors during the busy holiday season, the museum regrets that it cannot accommodate baby strollers.

The Brandywine River Museum is located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. The museum is open daily, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except Christmas Day. Admission is $8 for adults; $5 for seniors ages 65 and over, students, and children over six; free for children under six and members. For more information, call 610-388-2700 or visit the museum's website at www.brandywinemuseum.org.

For digital photography to accompany this press release,
please call 610-388-8337 or email lenglehart@brandywine.org.





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