What's there to do in downtown Lancaster? Plenty.
Dazzling Demuth
Just one of a handful of pocket museums around downtown, the Demuth Museum is set in Lancaster artist Charles Demuth's home, garden and studio. After studying in Philly at PAFA, Demuth spent time in liberal Paris but still maintained lifelong ties to his hometown. Known for stunning watercolors, Demuth's work can be found in the Barnes Foundation collection, on the walls of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and in museums all over the world. His dreamy style, still considered avant-garde, is especially fetching when seen in the intimate quarters where much of it was created.
120 E. King St., 717-299-9940, www.demuth.org.
Christmas every day
It sounds over-the-top kitschy at first blush, but the "National Christmas Center's Christmas Through the Decades" exhibit in the back of the Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum is super cool. Christmas past comes alive in a series of 15 galleries recreating holiday tradition from Victorian times up through the '50s and '60s.
Curator and historian Jim Morrison brings cultural details into focus, including a groovy metal Christmas tree of the swinging '60s, a toy-stocked Woolworth's decked out in holiday finery and a solidly staid 1950s scene, complete with a newfangled console TV and overstuffed armchair.
Expect pangs of nostalgia as you spot a vintage snow globe, a pattern of wrapping paper or an unwrapped box of Lincoln Logs.
Heritage Center Museums at Market Square, 37 N. Market St., 717-397-2970, www.quiltandtextilemuseum.com.
About those quilts . . .
