Join us on Friday, December 3 from 5:30 to 7:30 to celebrate the season! We’ll be announcing the community judges’ winners for the Gingerbread House Contest and gearing up for Saturday’s parade and tree lighting!
Free admission for all.
Join Susan Spellman for an interactive workshop on drawing from nature! Ages 10 and up, all skill levels welcome!
Join us for a fun morning with children’s book illustrator, Gina Perry! Ages 5+
Join two of the artists featured in “Show + Tell,” Jill Weber and Ryan O’Rourke, for a lively discussion about the process of illustrating a book.
Gingerbread is back for 2022! Once again, we’re filling our galleries and downtown shop windows with sweet holiday goodness!
The 2022 theme is: fictional places and characters. We are inviting the gingerbreadologisits of Portsmouth and beyond to craft your favorite fictional places and characters —edible materials only, of course!
It’s Pastel!, the 14th annual national juried exhibition of the Pastel Society of New Hampshire, opened Saturday, October 22!
This is the perfect season for a walking tour with all the beautiful foliage. Remember, if you can’t get to any of our regularly scheduled tours, you can always book a private tour by emailing Robin, our tour manager!
The JPJ House will be open 11am-3pm on November 11, and admission is FREE!
We’ll be open until 8pm on November 4th for Art ‘Round Town! Stop by after work to see “Show + Tell” and “It’s Pastel!”
Exhibition Extended Through December 30
Holiday hours, 10am–4pm
FREE for everyone!
Open until 8pm Friday, December 2, and Saturday, December 3.
Are you ready for sweater weather?
To go along with our exhibition featuring greater Seacoast children’s picturebook illustrators, “Show + Tell,” we invited the gingerbreadologisits of Portsmouth and beyond to craft their favorite fictional places and characters. This year’s exhibition is filled with beloved charcters, magical castles, and storybook holiday favorites.
Now through December 22!
With so many fasntastic entries this year we do not envy the judge’s job. Thank you to all our judges for their hard work!
Judges from Kennebunk Savings Bank
The winner is Elena Trunfio’s Magical Mushroom Cottage
Our adult category is always full of fantastic entries and this year was no exception!
Honorable mention in both the Adult Category and for Best in Show goes to Hagrid’s Hut by Izzi and Hannah
It’s all about the magic you can create when working together in the multi-generational category.
Frank Krupp and Ariana Incollingo’s Tangled Christmas towered above the competition and won the category.
An Old House in Paris by Aunt Kathy Brown and the La Croix Kddos with their twelve little girls in two straight lines receieves an honorable mention.
Our teen category entrants were hard at work leveling up their masterpieces!
The Ravenpuffs’ Hogwarts Express
Kuzco’s Palace and Pacha’s Hut by Natalie Little
We always love seeing what our 12-and-under category choose to build. This year’s entries pull from storybook classics like the Three Little Pigs, epic fantasy such as the Hobbit, and the magical world of witchcraft and wizardry.
Biblo’s Hobbit Hole by Rachel Little
Santa’s Surf Shack by Cole Dinulos
The Merchantile Portsmouth‘s Gnomeland may be decorated in all white treats, but they take home the blue winners ribbon.
After announcing their summer 2023 show as Little Shop of Horror’s Prescott Park Arts Festival‘s entry takes home an honorable mention.
Our Judge’s Choice Best in Show winner is Lindsay Carroll’s Goldilocks and the Three Bears. With decorative details from the story on all sides of the gingerbread house still photos weren’t enough to capture all the tiny details.
Sandi Strzepek’s The Hobbit is full of fun details. From the almond sliver pavers and the slices of gum stacked as letters in the the mailbox to the sugar pane illusion of a fireplace inside the hobbit home, Strzepek’s work holds many charming surprises.
Rachel Wall’s Those Who Live in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones is not made out of glass, but instead uses poured sugar to create. the illusion of glass walls. Pair that with the colorful base of melted peppermint candies and visitors see unexpected and ingenious uses of edible material.
Libby Giordano’s Gingerbread Village for Make-A-Wish New Hampshire is a colorful pile of not one, not two, but six different gingerbread houses. The structure of these houses comes from store bought kits, but the colorful decoration creates a sense of whimsy.
Elena Trunfio’s Magical Mushroom Cottage, which also took home Judges’ Award for best in the adult category, adds to its ribbons with People’s Choice Best in Show. Who does Trunfio’s woodland cottage hold? You’ll just have to use your imagination.
Pick up a stamp sheet at the Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center, at one of our downtown retail partner locations, or download here.
Visit each of the locations and get a stamp.
Collect 15 of 18 stamps and submit your sheet by December 20 for a chance to win a prize from one of our partners!
We will be raffling off some of the creations submitted by community members. Get a ticket for $1 and you could take home as a holiday centerpiece! Winners to be announced on December 20.
We are part of the city-wide seasonal event, Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth, along with many other institutions. Check it all out here! Plus, we’re hosting the kick-off party on December 2, 2022 from 5:30–7:30 pm when the winners of the community judges’ awards will be announced!
Join us on Wednesday, October 27 from 5:30 to 7pm to meet local legend and gardening master John Forti! He’ll be on hand to sign copies of his latest book, The Heirloom Gardner: Traditional Plants and Skills for the Modern World.
Please note that for large, indoor gatherings such as these, we are requiring visitors to be provide proof of COVID vaccination, or a negative COVID test from the past 48 hours upon entry. Masks are required indoors, regardless of vaccination status.
Portsmouth Historical Society is pleased to announce the appointment of Sue Ann Pearson as our new Director of Development. Pearson comes to PHS with a full resume of non-profit organizations as director in both fundraising and marketing. We look forward to a productive fall as the Advancement Office is busy with mailings and end of year appeals!
IT’S GINGERBREAD TIME!
Sign up today to enter your own gingerbread creation in the 31st Annual Gingerbread House Contest and Exhibition! Don’t know where to start? Come see our current exhibitions for some inspiration! This year’s theme is Our Favorite 603 Things!
Details and registration at www.portsmouthhistory.org/gingerbread
The John Paul Jones House will be open to the public only one more day this year – Veterans Day! Keeping this local landmark looking it’s best is a lot of upkeep. This summer, thanks to funds received through the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance from the 1772 Foundation and hard work by the Portsmouth Painting Company, the house got a fresh coat of paint! Plus, Portsmouth Painting Company had a little fun… they did a remake of a classic paint ad from 1989 that featured JPJ. Check it out here!
The festival of lights starts this evening, and we know many of you are busy wrapping gifts, cooking feasts, and lighting candles. All the best to you and your family!
The Hanukkah card pictured above is available at our Museum Shop! Stop by online or in person today!
Did you see us on NH Chronicle and in the Union Leader?! 😲🤩 Click here to see the segment on WMUR and here for the Union Leader article!
Stop by this weekend and get a grab-and-go family craft! Kids can decorate and assemble their own winter hat ornament to make your home a little more festive. Just ask at the front desk!
See the Gingerbread Houses and vote on your favorites to win the People’s Choice awards! The last day to vote is December 16th!
Thanks to everyone who has supported Portsmouth Historical Society this year! To our friends near and far, we are so grateful for your likes, shares, emails, texts, phone calls, visits, and suggestions. Your support and enthusiasm for our community quilt project, our historical quilt exhibition, the John Paul Jones House, and the annual Gingerbread House contest remind all of us here at Portsmouth Historical how much we LOVE being a special part of this “Tiny Bit Huge” community. As we approach the end of the year, and if we have entertained, educated, or inspired you, we ask that you consider an end-of-year gift to help us finish strong. Our Annual Appeal mailing is on the move thanks to the USPS, and if you haven’t received a letter in the mail, don’t fret! Just visit our WEBSITE HERE and you can make a donation today!
A huge shout out to our fabulous Historical Walking Tour Guides! We started late, but ended the season successfully. Our new tour this year, “In The Steps of Washington,” proved to be very popular. We could not offer these tours without this dedicated group of local history buffs. Thanks to Randy Absher, Jeff Thomson, Fred Lewis, Linda King, Lauren Gianino, Elizabeth Sanborn, Alan Cohen & Joe Distefano.
Happy Holidays to all!
—Robin Lurie-Meyerkopf
Walking Tours Manager
