FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2023

Morgantown History Museum to Host Inaugural Holiday Event

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Santa Claus is coming to the Morgantown History Museum on Friday, December 15 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. for a free holiday celebration.

Santa Claus will be greeting museum visitors, listening to children’s gift wishes, and posing for photos in his sleigh. Cookies, hot cocoa, and other refreshments will be served. While Santa is not arriving until December 15, his sleigh will be on display in the museum for the entire month of December. Visitors to the museum are allowed to sit in the sleigh and take photos as well.

Coinciding with the event, the museum is partnering with The Shack Neighborhood House for a holiday shelf-stable food drive and coal-mining exhibit throughout the month of December. The Shack provides an inclusive, safe, and fun environment for learning and recreation for children, youth, and community members of all ages in Monongalia County and the surrounding areas. Food items can be dropped off at the Morgantown History Museum, located at 175 Kirk Street Morgantown, WV during any hours the museum is open. The museum is open Wednesday - Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday - Sunday 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“Ideally, we are looking for a collection of easy self-serve items such as microwavable chef Boyardee raviolis, microwave ready mac and cheese, soups, and shelf stable microwave dinners. Fruit cups, and anything easy to open that is shelf-stable along those lines would be extremely helpful as well,” said Katie Leach, Program Director of The Shack. 

Members of the community are encouraged to explore the museum while attending the Holiday event. The museum’s collections tell the history of Morgantown and how the city has progressed through the years preserving and promoting local and regional history through a vast array of artifacts, documents, and photographs from the past.

The museum preserves and promotes learning regional history through its ever-growing collection, which includes stunning glassware from local glass manufacturers, some of which was chosen by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy for the White House dining room. In addition, Morgantown native Don Knotts is featured in a large display of superstar artifacts, including autographs, movie posters, letters, and film memorabilia.

The new Museum Director, Jason Burns, was hired to oversee the museum’s operations at the beginning of November.

“As part of the museum’s history, I look forward to keeping the stories of Monongalia County alive by sharing them with museum visitors and breathe life into the past. It is my goal to ensure that generations from now, people will be able to walk along the banks of the Monongahela with a more complete story of their ancestors because of the museum’s preservation of our history,” said Burns. 

This event is one of the first planned for the history museum. As Burns settles into the museum’s operations, he is keen to give the museum a new life with new exhibits that feature community interaction.

Burns hopes to rotate and refresh some of the current exhibits at the museum over the next year as well as partner with other local organizations to offer more interactive events. 

For more information regarding Santa’s upcoming visit, email Burns at morgantownwvhistory@icloud.com or call the Morgantown History Museum at 304-319-180 or follow the Morgantown History Museum on Facebook.

###