2016 Holiday Exhibit: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

For 200 years, E.T.A. Hoffman’s tale of The Nutcracker and The Mouse King has enchanted readers, inspired composers and dancers, and delighted audiences around the world.

This classic story written in 1816 about a girl named Marie (Clara in the ballet) who helps a wooden nutcracker defeat an army of mice is the inspiration for the annual literature-based Christmas exhibit at the Historic Odessa Foundation. Scenes from the story will be recreated in the National Historic Register Wilson-Warner House. 

Christmas Exhibit

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Be delighted with a vignette depicting the Stahlbaum’s splendid parlor on Christmas Eve complete with the children’s toy cabinet and a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. Don’t miss this enchanting story where much to Marie’s surprise the nutcracker turns out to be her Godfather Drosselmeier’s nephew, whom she will marry.

To enhance this year’s Christmas exhibit, the HOF is honored to announce a loan exhibit of over 60 nutcrackers of all shapes and sizes from the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum in Leavenworth, Washington. Highlights from the collection will include 19th century German brass nutcrackers, a Swiss wood lever nutcracker in the form of a dog, a French squirrel nutcracker, and a German 5 piece set of the Nutcracker Suite nutcrackers. 

In addition, the HOF is pleased to announce that there will be nearly 100 other nutcrackers in the exhibit on loan from private collections.

Historic Odessa is delighted to mark the 200th anniversary of The Nutcracker and The Mouse King with this one-of-a-kind exhibit, running through Dec. 31, 2016. Make Odessa’s tradition your family’s tradition this year!

The exhibit is located at the National Historic Register Wilson-Warner House in historic Odessa, Delaware.

**Nussknacker Und Mausekonig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King), 1835, E.T.A. Hoffman, illustrated by Peter Carl Geissler