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Family Guide to the Holiday Season at the National Gallery

The National Gallery can be the perfect holiday destination for you and your whole family. But where to start?

2 min read

Whether you’re bringing your kids or your grandparents, art lovers or art learners, this guide can help you make the most of your visit.

Explore our holiday hub for our full array of programs, special offers, tips, and more.
 

1. Ice skate at the Sculpture Garden

Take a spin on the ice while taking in view of grand national museums and monuments. You’ll also see splendid large-scale sculptures from artists such as Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, and Roy Lichtenstein. From skating lessons to special events, there’s plenty to enjoy at the ice rink.

Learn more

2. Go on a winter art scavenger hunt

From sumptuous feasts to chilly winter scenes and dashing ice skaters, there are many seasonal sights to find in our collection. Finish in the West Building Rotunda, where you’ll see a festive holiday flower display.

Search for winter wonders

3. Make art with us

You don't have to just look at art. You can make your own creation! Stop by for First Saturday on December 7 to make art, sketch, listen to a story in English and Spanish, and more.

See what's in store

4. Make art at home

Practice sketching in our virtual after-school Sketchbook Club.

Or on your own time, young artists can explore our resources and videos. An Eye for Art introduces kids to great artists and guides them to make their own masterpieces. Designed for Pre-K students, Art Tales helps you talk about art with your little ones and includes reading recommendations in English and Spanish. Don’t miss the related video series!

Or experiment with recreating an artwork by Alma Thomas, Louise Bourgeois, or Berthe Morisot in our new D.I.Y. art series on YouTube.

5. Use these tips for family visits

Bringing a stroller? The 6th Street entrance to the West Building and the 4th Street entrance to the East Building have ramps.

Need a lactation room? You’ll find one just past the East Building Auditorium on the Concourse.

Family restrooms are in the West Building on the Main Floor and in the East Building on the Concourse and Mezzanine.

Learn more

6. Enjoy a seasonal treat

Looking to share a family meal? Find freshly made soups, sandwiches, salads, pizza, and more at our five cafés. From November 22 through 25, you can even enjoy a Thanksgiving feast in the Cascade Café. On a cold day, warm up with hot cider or mulled wine from the Sculpture Garden’s Pavilion Café. Or treat yourself to seasonal gelato flavors like caramel apple and gingerbread cookie at our Espresso & Gelato Bar.

Browse the menus

7. Let us be your (audio) guide

We offer an audio guide just for kids—so don’t forget your headphones. Set your own pace: use your phone to explore as many stops as you like in any order you choose.

Explore our kids audio guides

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A person and dog trudge through ankle-deep snow to approach a barn and farmhouse under a heavy, lead-gray sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The person has pale-toned skin and wears a brown hat and suit. He carries a sack over one shoulder and a handled basket looped over his other forearm. He walks away from us and to our right so the side of his face is painted with a triangular touch of peach. The dog is mostly brown with some gray spots. The pair approach a break in a stone wall built with light and dark gray boulders. Snow sits in the crooks of branches in barren trees and bushes to the left and right. A short distance away, six cows stand looking off to our left or nuzzle through the snow to find grass. A gray-sided, snow-topped barn is just beyond them to the right of center. More trees and other smaller structures are around and behind the barn. Another stone wall stretches from the right side of the barn and off the right edge of the painting. The main section of the three-story house to the left is butter yellow. A single-story structure jutting off the right side of the house is pale terracotta red. Laundry hangs on a line outside the house, and a person, also wearing brown, stands nearby. On the roofs, the snow is painted white where the low sun falls and mauve-pink where it falls into shadow. The distant horizon, which comes about a third of the way up this composition, is lined with slate-gray hills. A strip of warm yellow light lines the horizon beneath piles of gray clouds that mostly obscure a lavender-blue sky. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed a boulder in the lower right corner, “DURRIE N HAVEN.”

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