Holidays at the National Gallery

Unwrap winter's magic with us this season.

 

Whether visiting during the holidays is a family tradition, your first time, or a quiet moment for yourself, here are 9 ways to make the most of your visit.

Note that we're open on Thanksgiving but closed on December 25 and January 1.

Ice Rink :  1. Skate in the Sculpture Garden

Take a spin on the ice while taking in views of grand national museums and large-scale sculptures. Improve with a lesson, plan a party, or warm up with some cocoa. The Ice Rink is open late daily through March 1.

exhibitions :  2. Catch a special exhibition

Stop by temporary exhibitions like The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art, a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Or explore Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985, the first exhibition to consider photography’s impact on the cultural and aesthetic movement.

Article:  3. Find some peace

Not a fan of crowds? Tired of the holiday hustle? Here are 5 tips for a restful and refreshing visit to the museum.

calendar :  4. Hear the story behind the art

Join a gallery talk or workshop to see classic works from our collection in a new light. In December you can sketch a wintry scenes or learn about the Christmas story in art.

Article:  5. Bring the whole family

Whether you’re bringing your kids or your grandparents, art lovers or art learners, they all can enjoy a visit to the National Gallery. Here are our suggestions for a visit.

We look slightly down onto a scene showing light-skinned men, women, and children ice skating on a frozen river in this horizontal landscape painting. We get the impression of hundreds of people gathered on the ice creating a crowd that extends into the hazy distance. The couple dozen closest to us are the most defined. A few clusters of people and individuals in particular draw our attention. For example, a group of three men wearing dark cloaks and hats stand in conversation on our right. Two boys nearby hold sticks and play a game similar to hockey. A small child holds two smaller sticks, perhaps to help balance. A man in the front center wears puffy scarlet-red pants with white stockings, a red jacket, and a tall brown hat with a cloud of scarlet feathers. He stands next to a woman wearing a black hooded cloak over a black skirt and raspberry-pink bodice. She tucks her hands into a cylindrical muffler held at her waist. Another elegantly dressed man in golden yellows and black and a woman in mauve pink and butter yellow stand nearby. Some of people throughout the scene wear white frilly collars and others are more simply dressed in shades of brown, gray, and black. To our right, a faded rose-red windmill stands at the river’s edge, and to our left a large house with steeply pitched and stepped roofs is enclosed within a solid fence painted with pink diamonds against black and white. Smoke rises from one chimney, and other houses and a church line the riverbank into the distance. A wooden bridge near a grove of bare trees connects spit of land near us in the lower left corner with the village beyond. Brilliant azure-blue sky is visible through breaks in the steel-gray clouds above.

Article:  6. Hunt for holiday magic

Wander the galleries with friends and family for a holiday scavenger hunt. Whether you seek icy cold scenes, cozy family festivities, or moments of reflection, our collection has something for you.

shops :  7. Pick out the perfect gift

With three onsite shops and thousands of items available online, we have your gifts covered. Shop for locally made products, children’s toys, modern home decor, exceptional books, and more. Plus, National Gallery members always enjoy 10 percent off.

Food and Drink :  8. Taste the season

Satisfy your sweet tooth with seasonal gelato flavors at our Espresso & Gelato Bar, enjoy a Thanksgiving feast in the Cascade Café on November 27 and 28, or warm up with hot cider or mulled wine from the Sculpture Garden’s Pavilion Café.

Maps :  9. Stop and smell the flowers

During the holidays, our grand West Building Rotunda transforms into a winter wonderland with poinsettias, evergreen trees, and other seasonal decor. Use our map to find your way.

Wintertime stories

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.”

Article:  Enjoy Winter Art Favorites at the National Gallery

Explore some of our favorite snowy scenes.

This horizontal painting is made up of three parts: in the center square panel, a woman reclines under a wooden shelter set into a rocky cave, which is surrounded by angels, and narrower wings to either side are each occupied by a standing man. All the people have pale skin, which is tinged with faint green. The three panels are joined with a gold frame, and the gold background behind the central scene and the men in the side panels are covered with a noticeable network of cracks. In the central panel, a cobalt-blue robe nearly envelopes the reclining woman’s body; this is Mary. It covers her head and falls open where she crosses her wrists over her chest to show a pink garment underneath. A flat gold halo encircles her head ,and her body is surrounded by a field of crimson red, almost like an aura. She rests under a wooden structure with a pitched roof, which is surrounded by craggy, barren rock. A swaddled infant lies in a rectangular, tray-like manger. The infant’s head is also surrounded by a gold halo. Fine gold rays emanate down into the structure from a star just above the peak of the roof. A bull and a donkey look down at the baby from the far side of the manger. The interior of the structure behind them is black. In a smaller scale, two women wash a haloed infant in a tub in front of the rocky cave near the lower left corner of this panel. A man with a white beard and hair sits to our left of Mary, holding a pink cloak at his throat and looking toward the infant. Above and around the rocks, seven winged and haloed angels cluster on each side. One angel to the right presents a scroll with black writing to two men accompanied by a dog and several sheep in the lower right. The man in the panel to the left, Isaiah, has a gray beard and long, wavy hair, and he wears a lilac-purple cloak draped over a coral-orange robe. In his right hand, on our left, he holds an unfurled scroll with large black lettering. His other hand is raised with one finger pointing upward. He looks to our left, away from the central scene. On the right, Ezekiel, echoes Isaiah's pose. Ezekiel holds an open scroll with his left hand, on our right, and his other hand is raised. He also wears a coral-colored robe, but his is overlaid with a blue cloak. His receding hair is short and brown, as is his beard. Like Isaiah, he takes up most of the height of the panel and gazes to our left, toward the central panel.

Video:   The Christmas Story in Art 

Explore how artists have depicted Christmas across centuries.

Video:  Wintertime Art Screensaver

Enjoy relaxing music and a series of wintertime landscapes from our collection.  

Dozens of people line up around a shed-like structure and around stone ruins to kneel before a woman and baby at the lower center of this circular painting. All the people have pale skin. The crowd gathers along a pathway that winds around a rocky mountain at the top middle of the composition. Most of the people are on foot but a few ride horses or camels. The line of people curves around and through an arched opening in a stone ruin to our left. Sitting at the center of the painting, behind the woman and baby, Mary and Jesus, the structure is open at the front and has a triangular pitched roof. Some of the people, including the three closest to Mary and Jesus, wear elegant, gold-trimmed clothing. Others wear simple tunics, and several people standing along the ruins in the middle distance wear only white loincloths. Ages of the people range from young and cleanshaven to older and bearded. Their costumes are mostly pale yellow, coral orange, crimson red, shell pink, or sky blue. Some people raise their heads and hands while others hold hands to their chests and close their eyes. Mary wears a pale blue robe over a blush-pink dress. Jesus is nude and an older man standing nearby wears an apricot-colored robe over a blue tunic. The older man, Mary, and Jesus have gold halos. A peacock and two other birds stand on the roof of the manger, which shelters an ox, ass, and horses.

Interactive Article:  Art up Close: Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi’s Spectacular “The Adoration of the Magi”

See the marvelous and mystifying details of the 15th-century painting, believed to have been made for the Medici family.

Video:  Take a Walk Through George Henry Durrie’s “Winter in the Country”

Watch the painting come to life as its lone figure walks through the snow with his trusty dog.

Article:  Gilbert Stuart’s Skating Sensation

With "The Skater," Stuart blazed a new path in British portraiture. Its details tell the story of skating in 18th-century Britain.

Gift a National Membership

Support the nation's art museum this giving season. Become a member or gift a membership to someone you love.

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Plan Your Visit

Our tips on how to get to the museum and make the most of your visit.

Visiting with Kids