Events

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

By Diane Duflot /

Burnaby Village Museum’s Heritage Christmas, presented by Concord Pacific.

Presented by Concord Pacific, Burnaby Village Museum’s Heritage Christmas is a seasonal event with something for everyone: vintage carousel rides, a look back to a simpler time, and village streets decked out with cedar swags and 1920s-style lights.

Seasonal Fun

Activities abound during Heritage Christmas. For detectives of all ages, there’s a Twelve-Days-of-Christmas Scavenger Hunt, and on Sundays, budding chefs can sample shortbread or gingerbread at a heritage baking demonstration. Take a photo with Father Christmas, a Victorian-Edwardian version of Santa Claus, who’s available to listen to children’s wishes until December 23rd. Eco-sculptures throughout the village will delight and include a unique team of reindeer pulling a sleigh and homebound students waiting to board the fully restored Interurban tram #1223.Everyone will appreciate the affordability of Heritage Christmas, where the admission is free and rides on the carousel are just $2.65 each.

Christmas past

Burnaby Village makes every effort to capture the spirit and style of the day, with wreaths decorating the village doors, and paper, cranberry, and popcorn garlands encircling holiday trees. Costumed townsfolk invite visitors to admire their businesses, while theatre troupes, musicians, carollers, and storytellers provide scheduled entertainment throughout the village. The essence of Christmases past lives on at Elworth (1922), a designated heritage house that exemplifies the upper-middle-class suburban residence of the period. Elworth’s front door is decorated with boxwood greenery, as was the tradition the home’s first residents, the Bateman family.

Romantic holiday lights

Lights fill the village during Heritage Christmas: wander with your new beau among the life-sized figures dancing behind a curtain of lights, bring your spouse to gaze on the fairy lights adorning a majestic maple, or pop the question amongst the bandstand’s colourful sound-responsive globe lights.Catch Heritage Christmas from November 24th until January 4th at Burnaby Village Museum at the following times:November 24th to December 14th: weekdays 1 – 5:30 pm, weekends 1 – 9 pm.December 15th to January 4th daily 1 – 9 pm.Closed December 24th and 25th.