Creole Holiday Traditions Tour at Hermann-Grima House

View Hermann-Grima House and Gallier House in holiday dress while learning about 19th-century life from November 15, 2023 - January 10, 2024. Open 6 days a week (closed Tuesdays).

Tours will discuss 19th-century Christmas and New Year’s celebrations in New Orleans, including gift-giving, holiday meals, seasonal displaying and decorating, and how the season’s activities would impact the lives of the enslaved people laboring on the property.

Discover Creole holiday traditions from the 19th-century while touring the Hermann-Grima house and slave quarters, an example of historic preservation and interpretation in the French Quarter. The culmination of the Creole holiday season was a New Year’s Day celebration, when New Orleanians exchanged gifts and called on one another. While on tour visitors will learn about local methods of holiday decorating, culinary traditions, and the experience of the enslaved men and women who made the fanciful holiday celebrations possible.