5 Things to Help You Shake Off the Post-Turkey Blues

All Trails of History sites will be closed tomorrow, Nov. 26. All of us here at Trailheads HQ wish you and yours a happy, safe, and tension-free Thanksgiving. Try for at least two out of three!

Snow at the PA Lumber Museum for Thanksgiving (via Facebook)

 Last Friday's post included some suggestions for things you can talk about around the dinner table (see what The Onion has to offer on this topic) or do to keep everyone occupied during the food coma recovery period. Today, in a special mid-week post, a few more ideas for the days ahead, in the event you actually want to leave the house.

About half a dozen sites (see the list here) will be open on Friday, Nov. 27--a museum or historic site visit gets everyone out of the house and out of the mall. If you must succumb to the cultural pressures of shopping til you drop the day after Thanksgiving, why not include a museum store in your itinerary?

Sites will be back to their regular schedules on Saturday, Nov. 28, which also happens to be Small Business Saturday. You can shop small AND shop local at our museum stores.

Ephrata Cloister Museum Store's Shop Small event runs Nov. 28-Dec. 17
Shoppers can enter to win this gift basket

Several sites have special events scheduled for Saturday:

• Brandywine Battlefield Park: Patriot's Day, 10 am-4 pm.
• Ephrata Cloister: Candlelight Open House, 5-8 pm.
• Graeme Park: A Soldier's Christmas, 11 am-4 pm.
• Pennsbury Manor: Wreaths & Greens Workshop, reservation required.
• Pennsylvania Military Museum: Final weekend of the season (closed Nov. 30-Mar. 12). Guided tours at 1 pm Saturday and Sunday.

And if you're just too tired from all the holiday hub-bub (hubbub?), why not relax with a nice hot cup of tea or an adult beverage and consult the December program listings? Even with winter coming on, there's still plenty to do on the Trails of History. We're looking forward to seeing you.

Oh, and one more thing. Tuesday, Dec. 1, is #GivingTuesday, an online initiative to encourage generosity and make it easy to support causes near and dear to your heart. Pennsbury Manor is participating, as is the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation. I'll update this post if I learn of other Trails of History sites taking part this year.