(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- Cape May MAC (Museums+Arts+Culture) offers dozens of holiday tours, activities and events for visitors to Victorian Cape May over six weeks from November 22 to Janusary 2, 2025. Visitors ready for holiday joy can celebrate the Christmas season amid the beauty and history of this National Historic Landmark City.
Cape May MAC launched its first Christmas tour in 1974, the Christmas Candlelight House Tour, and it is by far Cape May MAC’s most popular tour of the year. This year marks its 51st year. The tour celebrates the best of Cape May at Christmas, as you walk along Cape May’s gaslit streets, hear musicians and carolers, and visit a large selection of homes, inns, B&Bs, churches and hotels where you’ll step inside to see both Victorian and more modern interiors beautifully decorated for the holidays. Saturdays, December 7, 14 and 21 from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. Tickets sell out quickly.
Since 2011, the yuletide display “An Old-Fashioned Christmas Exhibit: Holiday Traditions through the Years,” has been a beloved tradition of Cape May MAC’s festive holiday season. Hosted at the Carroll Gallery on the grounds of the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate, this charming exhibit has welcomed thousands of holiday visitors, both young and old, over the years. Experience holiday traditions complete with a stately Christmas tree, a Dept. 56 Dickens Village, model trains, nostalgic photos from Christmas past, toys and much more featuring an extensive Dept. 56 Dickens Village Collection from Ernie & Betsy Heegard. Open daily November 22 through January 2, 2025 (except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day). Admission is free.
For those looking for a festive daytime tour, the Holiday Inns Tour is your ticket to step inside several Cape May properties decorated for the holidays with garland, bows, trees and more. Capture the Christmas spirit as you see inside these Cape May landmark properties during the holiday season. This is a self-guided tour, so please bring your ticket to the Washington Street Mall Information Booth located at the junction of Washington and Ocean Streets and get a copy of the map. A trolley shuttle makes a continuous loop during this self-guided afternoon tour.
See inside a selection of Cape May bed & breakfast inns and private homes, specially decorated for the holidays on Lamplighter Christmas Walking Tours, self-guided evening walking tours that includes a visit to An Old-fashioned Christmas Exhibit in the Carroll Gallery at the Physick Estate Carriage House.
See Cape May’s Victorian House Museum, the 1879 Emlen Physick House, decorated in true Victorian style for Christmas on the Emlen Physick Estate Tour during the holidays. Your guide will take you through the first and second floors of the 18-room mansion, voted “the most beautiful building in New Jersey,” and explain its importance and the history of the family and staff who lived and worked here. Learn about Victorian Christmas traditions along the way. Afterwards, visit the Carroll Gallery in the estate’s Carriage House to see “An Old-Fashioned Christmas” exhibit, with a marvelous Dept. 56 Dickens Village display.
The Evening Yuletide House Tour is a guided, first-person living history holiday tour of first-floor rooms of the magnificent 1879 Physick Estate, Cape May’s only Victorian house museum, decorated in authentic Victorian style for Christmas. Your guide portrays a member of the Physick family in the early 1900s and shares stories and traditions. The tour also includes a visit to the Carroll Gallery to see “An Old-fashioned Christmas” exhibit.
Winter is here again, and the Harrison children have poured their attention into planning every last detail for their parent’s annual Christmas party, but when an heirloom necklace goes missing, the entire holiday season is threatened! Can you help the family find the missing jewels, or will this Christmas season go down as the worst one yet? In ’Tis The Season: The Christmas Caper, visitors will step inside Cape May’s Victorian House Museum, the 1879 Physick House Museum, and encounter the characters as this original story unfolds. Accessible with advance notice.
Who can resist the sparkle of Cape May’s beautiful streetscapes and Victorian homes decorated for Christmas? On the Holiday Lights Trolley Ride hear Christmas music and the history of Victorian Christmas traditions as you travel in the evening to see the holiday lights. Bring a lap blanket to keep warm or snuggle with a loved one and get into the spirit of Christmas with friends and family on one of Cape May’s most popular holiday trolley tours. Tour begins and ends at the trolley stop on Ocean Street.
Step on board the evening Spirited Cape May Christmas Trolley Rides, and hear tales of Christmases long, long ago and not so long ago, as you travel along lovely streets in the historic district. Hear about Santa arriving at this seaside town in odd and surprising ways, ghostly appearances in the 1879 Physick House museum experienced and recorded by staff there during the holidays, ghostly shadow spirits out strolling on cold December nights, the weird and risky games Victorians played at Christmas, and more.
Mrs. Claus comes direct from the North Pole to lead Santa’s Trolley Rides this year. She tells stories and leads holiday songs on this jolly holiday trolley ride through town. Santa joins the fun on the grounds of the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate. Begins and ends at the Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St., except for the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the night of Christmas Tree Lighting at the estate, when all trolley tours begin and end at the Washington Street Mall Information Booth.
It’s the winter holiday season in the late Victorian age. Join All That Glitters: Victorians Ring In A New Century Trolley Tour and take a ride around town as we regale all with then and now stories of the lively Cape Island holiday social landscape of the time. Learn how Victorians of the late 1800s in Cape May celebrated the New Year’s holiday and hear about some of the traditions and customs of subsequent decades through today.
Share a delicious breakfast with family and friends and welcome special guest Santa Claus, himself, as he drops in at the Inn of Cape May, 7 Ocean St., and greets guests, on select dates leading up to Christmas during Breakfast With Santa at The Inn of Cape May. There will be time for photos and sharing of wish lists. Event is limited and sells quickly.
For schedules click here. Schedule is subject to change.
Cape May MAC (Museums+Arts+Culture) is a multifaceted not-for-profit organization committed to promoting the preservation, interpretation, and cultural enrichment of the Cape May region for its residents and visitors. We maintain and manage the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate, the 1859 Cape May Lighthouse and the 1942 World War II Lookout Tower, and are the leading organization to offer visitors tours, activities and events year-round in America’s National Landmark City. Cape May MAC is the organization that saved the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate from demolition in 1970 and helped secure Cape May’s renaissance as a historic tourist destination. For information about our year-round schedule of tours, festivals, and special events, call 609-884-5404 or visit capemaymac.org.
For information about historic accommodations, contact Cape May Historic Accommodations at capemaylodging.com. For information about restaurants, accommodations and shopping, call the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May at 609-884-5508.
Photos Courtesy of Cape May MAC
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