Celebrating Christmas at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis

 

Going to the American Swedish Institute during the holiday season  became a tradition for our family even before having kids, when there was no little guys to rush us up and down the stairs and we had time to spend reading about the interesting history of this place and the Swedish community.  Once our oldest was old enough to move on his own and be able to take the stairs all the way up to the last floor we discovered the nice playroom they have up there. The museum has so much to offer for the entire family.
 


 
We went there this morning and stayed more than planned , (I usually try to be home for lunch so kids can nap in their own beds afterwards) but we just couldn't leave and miss all the fun that was going on: every room is decorated for Christmas according to the holiday traditions of the five Nordic countries (Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden), Christmas market (going on for 2 days :  today, December 6th and tomorrow) where you can get handcrafted gifts created by local artists ( the market is included in the regular museum admission ticket), performances by local choruses (we were there for the ASI Cloudberries - a female chorus- and the ASI Male Chorus), story times, Swedish Christmas cartoons, plenty of activities for kids (Victor chose to make Lucia crowns for his little brother and himself).
 
We ended up having lunch at the museum and let the boys nap in the car on the way home.
Here you can check out the schedule for Sunday. I guarantee you'll have lots of fun. If you plan on going to the museum tomorrow I advise you to do it early in the morning. ASI opens at 10 am, we were there at 10:30 am and their parking lot was already full. But I guess they are used to big crowds for the Winter Wonderland and they were handing out maps of parking lots nearby.
Stef

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