Candlelight Tours - Hans Herr House Museum

2013 Christmas Candlelight Tours
Thursday & Friday, December 5 & 6, 6:00–8:00 PM
Saturday, December 7, 5:00–8:30 PM

Add a dash of old-world charm to your holiday season. Experience holiday customs from some of the earliest ethnic groups who settled in Lancaster County. Guides in traditional dress demonstrate cooking, blacksmithing and other crafts. Sample foods from the 18th century and hear the traditional Christmas story read in German in the oldest Mennonite meetinghouse in the Americas. Tours end with hot cider and caroling around a bonfire.

To Reserve

Click the "Add to Cart" button after the date you want below. You will be able to select the number of tickets and pay on the next screen. (Your payment will be processed by PayPal, but you don't need a PayPal membership to make the reservation.

Thursday, December 5, 6:00–8:00 PM

Friday, December 6, 6:00–8:00 PM

Saturday, December 7, 5:00–8:30 PM

You can also give us a call. We accept credit card payments over the phone, Monday–Saturday, 9:00 AM–4:00 PM at (717) 464-4438.

About the 2012 tours

Tickets sold out for Christmas Candlelight Tours in 2012. The annual tours lead visitors through rooms of the Hans Herr House, the oldest building in Lancaster County, with interactive historical presentations in each room.

Last year in the Kammer (bedroom), local historian Martin Keen spoke about the beginning of the Huguenot settlement in Paradise, Pennsylvania, three hundred years ago. French Huguenots were the second wave of permanent European settlers to the Lancaster County area.

In the Küche (kitchen) visitors tasted foods from Huguenot, Pennsylvania German and Native American cooking that all share a common ingredient—onions.

The first attic featured a conversation comparing a woman’s responsibilities in Native American and Pennsylvania German communities, including dress, cleaning, food preparation, children’s games and leisure activities.

The cellar celebrated the evolution of washing clothes—from beating garments on a rock to newfangled inventions created at the turn of the 20th century.

Tours ended in the Stübe, where the traditional Christmas story was read aloud in German and visitors were invited to join in singing “Silent Night.”

Afterward, guests enjoyed music and hot chocolate around a fire.

Throughout the evening, Matt Holliday was at work by candlelight in the blacksmith shop and Alyssa Mylin demonstrated how to hand-dip bayberry candles.

Handmade candles, blacksmith items and dozens of other gifts were available for sale in the museum store.