This weekend Wrightsville Beach Museum will begin our winter celebrations with our annual Holiday Open House on Sunday, December 3 from 2-4 PM at the museum. This yearly party is in part to show off our holiday decorating of the Myers Cottage, and this year we will have our Living Christmas Tree decorated. 20 years ago the museum board planted the cedar tree to the left of the museum as a living Christmas tree but it has rarely been decorated. This year we are lighting it to commemorate its 20 years at the museum.
This year’s Open House will have a variety of new items in the gift shop, a family-friendly Craft Table set up for holiday crafts while supplies last, violin students playing Christmas music, and plenty of hot chocolate, coffee, homemade goodies, and doughnuts from The Donut Inn.
We have set aside a wall in the main room of the museum for the plein air paintings of our beautiful Town and beaches. These have been selling well all month since our October Wet Paint Sale and will hang until the end of December. We have a Porch Checkers Table with black and white shells for the playing pieces. Melinda Chipley’s wonderful letterpress coasters and note cards are in stock. We have autographed copies of Luminous Island at their special holiday pricing. Our gift certificates for memberships or donations will include a book at the Open House. We have new hats with the museum logo and Wrightsville Beach Historic House prints by Alexis Seabrook.
At the Open House the museum will have updates on the moving of the Bordeaux Cottage to the Town’s Historic Square that is scheduled for a mere 7 weeks away, in mid-January. We will share a video on the move and opportunities to help us in this endeavor. We will be looking for additional docents and greeters as the museum expands and other volunteer opportunities will grow along with the need for donations of all sorts.
A week after the Open House the museum will hold its premier winter event: Jingle Bell 5K Run and Walk on Saturday, December 9. This year the Friday December 8 Packet Pick-Up will be at the brand-new Academy Sports + Outdoors at 5309 Gingerwood Drive, near Costco. We are now the 2nd largest 5K at Wrightsville Beach, behind only the Turkey Trot. We changed up the t-shirt options this year with 2 different t-shirts, a bright red one that says “Naughty” and a fun green one that says “Nice.” We will have prizes for running times, costumes, decorated strollers and costumed pets. There are giant wreaths for the overall men’s and women’s winners to cut down at the finish line.
