A MUSEUM is throwing open its doors this weekend and inviting local people to join in its Christmas fun for free.

Ryedale Folk Museum in Hutton le Hole will be telling the story behind some of our seasonal traditions to help visitors imagine what Christmas would have been like when its oldest buildings were first built.

There will be activities for children in the decorated manor house, where they can make the kind of gifts that wealthy people in Tudor times would have been given.

Museum Director, Jennifer Smith, said: “The Manor House will have seen more than 500 Christmases. When it was built, Christmas pie was probably on the menu filled with pigeon stuffed inside a partridge inside a chicken inside a goose, and then put inside a pastry case. Tudor England really knew how to celebrate.

“We won’t have such lavish fayre on offer but you can wish your friends ‘Wassell’ or good health with our Wassail Cup, enjoy a hot mince pie from the kitchen range in the Harome White Cottage or visit our cosy cafe.”

Life in Tudor England was quite strictly organised so the twelve days of Christmas was a time when people were allowed an unusual degree of freedom. All work stopped on Christmas Day and didn’t start again until Plough Monday, the first Monday after twelfth night. Throughout the holiday the communal plough was kept in the church with a ‘plough-light’ burning and spinning wheels were decorated with foliage so they couldn’t be used.

Jennifer said: "The museum is very proud of the Hayes Studio and is inviting visitors to create a unique and treasured Christmas gift or memento by taking photos of their children in Tudor costume in front of the photographer’s backdrop.

“We hope people will enjoy the chance to create an unusual photo in the spirit of what’s thought to be the oldest daylight photographic studios in the country."

The museum is hoping that people will also tweet their pictures taken in the studio with the hashtag #ourryedalexmas

There will also be a craft fair and the museum’s High Street shops will be dressed for Christmas.

The weekend’s events will be rounded off with a competition celebrating the thatching of the Tudor glass furnace, a tombola and Christmas music from Godiva.

Ryedale Folk Museum’s Tudor Christmas weekend takes place on Saturday and Sunday, 5 and 6 December from 10am to 3.30pm.

For further information, phone 01751 417367 or go to ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk