By Brooke Hill | Staff Writer
Snow labs, Santa and a model train display were just some of the events that were featured during Christmas at the Mayborn Museum on Thursday.
The museum begins planning for the annual event a couple months ahead, according to museum engagement coordinator Anna McKay.
“I just love Christmas at the Mayborn in general, not even this event specifically just because of all of the decorations that we have around the museum,” McKay said. “Then just being able to combine our science and learning with Christmas and wintertime themes, it’s a really fun challenge for our team to do.”
One of the special events that went on was a snow lab, put on by the museum’s graduate assistant. She took a science theater lab and modified it to create a seminar about the science behind snowflakes. The lab explained how they form and included pictures and time lapse videos in an effort to be an interactive show.
McKay hopes that the night was a fun time for families to be able to learn together.
“My main hope is that families have a wonderful time and a great learning experience together doing activities and taking pictures and, of course, getting to see Santa.”
Assistant director of communication Rebecca Nall mentioned that last year was the first time that they scheduled Christmas at the Mayborn so that it coincided with Christmas on Fifth, which she thinks made the event even more popular,
“I just love that the museum is such a place that people like returning to … We just always have had such a great turnout — last year even more so,” Nall said. “We have very loyal members and other people in the community and I love that people want to kick off their holiday season here with us.”
The museum’s big push is to make learning fun for guests of all ages year round, and especially at this event.
“I hope they have fun, and as a museum we want them to learn as they’re having fun. We’ve got a lot of fun activities that will inspire creativity,” Nall said.
One such activity is the opportunity to play with the museum’s scribble-bots. These bots are scribbling machines made out of recycled materials, and when a motor and a battery are added, guests can put markers in for the bot to create its own patterned drawing. Nall suggested that guests can use these patterns as their own unique wrapping papers.
“Not only are you having fun making a craft, but you’re learning as well,” Nall said.
