Gresham, Oregon: Christmas at the Historical Society

We recently visited the Gresham Historical Society & Museum, which has been housed in Greshams' Carnegie Library since 1990.

We had not been to Gresham for a while, but the museum is situated in the heart of a downtown enriched with various statues of all kinds of subjects, which we hope to explore later when the weather is a little more dry.

We were there for "Christmas at the Museum" and the Gingerbread House contest.

We loved the displays, including several attractive Christmas trees. This is one of the smaller ones, but the ornaments featured are from a selection you can choose from with your $5 admission fee.

Between the display, the ornament, and the ballot for the gingerbread contest, the felt like a very good value.

The displays included all sorts of Christmas decor and memorabilia, from refreshment trays to a wide variety of manger scenes.

That included not only types of items on display, but items from different time periods. There is likely to be something familiar from your past.

There was enough to border on crowded, but spaced out well enough to just make it feel cozy.

There was even (not pictured) Santa and an elf available for pictures.

But the real attraction was the gingerbread house contest.

It was fun to see the creativity, and the sources of inspiration, as with this depiction of the Gresham post office.

Many of the contestants used kits, and there were some available at the museum if you were inspired to try your own hand.

Even starting with a kit, there is a lot of room for creativity, but many participants went more free-form.

Some of them were so charming and well done that it was a shame not to vote for them.

However, there were two that were so outstanding, that the real contest was between them. (I hope the fun and creativity of competition was its own reward.)

One was a fire lookout, impressive for its construction, windows, and the depiction of the woods and stream below. I will understand anyone voting for it.

However, the Sugar Plum Bake Shoppe not only had that excellent construction, including windows, but also finer detail, including displays of baked goods in all of those windows.

Come on!

For us, that was the clear winner, but I don't think that takes anything away from the enjoyment we had looking at the other displays.

    

Displays continue through December 19th, Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 AM to 4 PM. 

The museum is located at 410 N. Main Avenue, Gresham, Oregon 97030.

https://greshamhistorical.org/

https://www.facebook.com/GreshamHistorical

https://greshamhistorical.org/2021-christmas-at-the-museum-gingerbread-contest/ 

 

COVID: Everyone was masked, and it was easy to maintain social distancing.

Accessibility: The main entrance is series of steps. It looked like there was a ramp to the side. Once inside, the aisles seemed pretty good for navigation.