WINTER PARK, FL— On Thursday, December 1, the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art and the City of Winter Park will present the 44th Annual Christmas in the Park in downtown Winter Park.
The free outdoor event begins at 6:15 p.m. when century-old Tiffany leaded-glass windows transform Central Park into a luminous concert hall for the Bach Festival Society Choir and Brass Ensemble. The choral performance concludes about 8 p.m., and the windows remain lighted for viewing until 8:30 p.m. Blankets and lawn chairs may be set up beginning at 4:00 p.m. after the windows are installed.
Begun in 1979, Christmas in the Park was conceived by Jeannette G. and Hugh F. McKean to share part of their rare Tiffany collection with the public in an informal setting. The windows displayed at Christmas in the Park are memorials with religious themes designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany’s firm for installation in the chapel at the Association Residence for Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females (1814–1974) in New York City.
For the 44th year of the event, the Morse will install its windows and present the Bach Festival Society Choir and Brass Ensemble in concert. The city will oversee arrangements for park use, security, crowd management, traffic control, and road closures.
The Morse Museum houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), including the chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and art and architectural elements from his Long Island estate, Laurelton Hall. The Morse is owned and operated by the Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation. The Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation provides additional support. It receives no public funds.
For more information about holiday celebrations at the Morse Museum, please visit morsemuseum.org. For more information regarding events in the City of Winter Park, please visit the city’s website at cityofwinterpark.org.