Winchester Mystery House Rings in the Holiday Season with Lineup of Special Events
The Winchester Mystery House has announced a lineup of special events that will take place throughout the holiday season.
“The holidays are a very special time at Winchester Mystery House,” said General Manager Walter Magnuson. “Many people don’t realize that during Sarah Winchester’s lifetime, the spookiest day of the year was actually Christmas Eve. Families and neighbors would gather around the fire in shadow filled story circles to hear tales of specters and the supernatural. We hope that our guests make a visit to the Winchester Mystery House part of their holiday tradition.”
Built during the Victorian era, Sarah Winchester’s eccentric house is a sight to behold any time of year, but it’s especially inspiring during the holidays. From November 25, 2022 through January 1, 2023, Winchester Mystery House will present daily mansion tours developed specifically for the holiday season. Guests will be treated to a sprinkling of Victorian holiday traditions, beautiful décor, festive music, and more.
Step back in time to a Victorian Christmas with the “Holidays with the Historian” tour. Led by Janan Boehme, Winchester Mystery Houses’ historian and Victorian customs expert, this special tour of the mansion includes Victorian holiday traditions, caroling and a special holiday treat in the Venetian Dining Room. Victorian attire is encouraged. Holidays with the Historian will take place on Saturday December 3; Saturday, December 10; and Saturday, December 17 at 5:30 pm.
Don't be ordinary! Stuff those stockings with strangeness and wrap something weird they won't forget! On Saturday, December 3 and Sunday, December 4 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Winchester Mystery House will host the 4th Annual Menagerie Holiday Oddities & Curiosities Market. Nobody does winter holidays, the occult, and oddities like the Victorians. Featuring vendors selling strangely unique collectibles, antiques, and handmade wares—from bugs, bones, and taxidermy to dark art, medical specimens, and natural science—the Menagerie Holiday Oddities & Curiosities Market is the San Francisco Bay Area’s official Oddities & Curiosities event. While on-site, guests are invited to experience self-guided tours through the ghostly corridors of the Winchester Mystery House, as well as other family-friendly activities, before or after the market.
"The Menagerie Oddities Market is so excited to bring our market to San Jose and the Winchester Mystery House for the first time,” said Connstance Garcia, co-owner of the Menagerie Oddities Market. “The bizarre beauty of the Winchester Estate is a perfect match to our event making this one of the most strange and unique shopping experiences of the season."
Master magician and acclaimed apparitionist Aiden Sinclair (“America’s Got Talent,” “Penn & Teller Fool Us”) returns to Winchester Mystery House with “Aiden Sinclair’s Ghost of Christmas Passed,” an interactive evening of paranormal illusions. Once upon a time, Christmas was more than a celebration of giving. It was a time that families gathered and when the night grew darkest, chilling tales were told. Aiden Sinclair rekindles the tradition of Dickens in a haunting presentation that brings the Christmas Ghost Stories of long ago back to haunt the living! Will you dare join and see what dark gifts he has in store? This show is story-driven and intended for mature audiences. Children under the age of 13 will not be admitted without express special permission from the performer. This production is presented in the Carriage House of the Winchester Mystery House.
Performances take place on Thursday, December 29 and Friday, December 30 at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $54.99.
For nearly 100 years the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, has stood as a testament to the ingenuity, singular vision and lore that surrounds its namesake, Sarah Pardee Winchester (heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune). Originally known as Llanada Villa, today it stands as an architectural wonder, a time capsule of a bygone era and one of America’s most celebrated haunted mansions. The estate is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a California Historic State Landmark, a San Jose City Landmark, and is one of the leading attractions in the Bay Area. Since tours began in 1923, millions of people from around the world have toured the lonely hallways, dark passages and ornate rooms of the Winchester Mystery House. It has intrigued visitors, scholars, and media from throughout the United States, and around the globe, with its combination of the beautiful and the bizarre, its story of heartbreak, tenacity and invention and its legends of the paranormal.
Tours are available daily, 364 days a year. For tickets and additional information, visit winchestermysteryhouse.com.