Today is December 5th, and for those of you who like countdowns, that means it’s only 20 days until Christmas!
Every museum has its own arrangements for the Christmas holidays. Banting House National Historic Site of Canada will be closed after December 21st, and will reopen January 7th. Today I am helping wrap up our to-do list for the year. I’ve already written some content for the annual report, and today we’re getting together with volunteer Jessica to hammer out an appealing design. This year’s annual report will be the first in a new quarterly series of museum updates. Other items for next year include plans for Facebook and Twitter, as well as a spring exhibit. I’ll tell you more about all of this in January, but for now I’ll say that I’m really enjoying the opportunity to be involved in getting so many new initiatives off the ground. I also want to say that I appreciate all the help we’ve gotten from our volunteers (did you know December 5th is World Volunteer Day?). Without people like Jessica, Emily, Stephanie, the other Stephanie, Meaghan, Katrina, Lindsay, Cliff, Ada, Erika, Natasha, Amber, and many many more, we wouldn’t have a working museum. So thank you!
If you haven’t been to Banting House yet this year, it’s not too late to stop in – especially while the weather is warmer and the roads are good. People looking for unique gifts can find them at our gift shop. Calendars, pens, bookmarks and stamps make great stocking-stuffers. Art lovers can enjoy our prints and Christmas cards of Banting’s Group of Seven-inspired original paintings. We also have photo postcards of Banting Square and the doctor’s office gallery in the museum. History buffs like me will appreciate a copy of Michael Bliss’ definitive biography of Banting. And you can bring diabetes awareness wherever you go with one of our Blue Circle pins. Many of these items can only be found at the museum, so make sure to visit us before the museum closes for the holidays.

This post was written by Stacey Devlin, graduate research assistant at Banting House NHSC. Stacey is a Master’s candidate in Public History at Western University.
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