Everyone loves chocolate. Here, a Staffordshire chocolate pot (1755-1770). Collection: The Met

Ramp up for the holidays by joining in some special (and delicious) virtual events hosted this week by New York City museums. Find the daily listings for everything on our virtual events page.

Tomorrow (December 8) at 6:30pm, come to a tavern tasting with chocolate! Join the program by Keeler Tavern Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut (co-hosted by Fraunces Tavern Museum), who will explain the history of chocolate in the colonies (and beyond!) and share a recipe you can make and sip during the program.  Be sure to sign up a day ahead of time.

Illustration of 19th c. holiday food to be discussed at Merchant’s House Museum

On Wednesday (December 9) at 6pm, travel back to 1843 with the Merchant’s House Museum to see how holiday food cited in A Christmas Carol was adapted to 19^th century American kitchens. In “From the Kratchit’s Kitchen,” you’ll not only meet a food historian but hear selected readings by Mr. Dickens himself!!

Poster House virtual event held inspired by  The Swiss Grid exhibition

At 7pm, take a winter break with the crew at Poster House, featuring a scintillating blend of mixology and posters!  In honor of the exhibition, The Swiss Grid, you’ll be whisked away to fabulous Alpine ski chalets (via posters), while you learn how to create four great cocktails. Everything you need to mix cocktails is posted on the event page.

Also at 7pm ­– the Museum of Food & Drink hosts “A Sweet Mexican Hanukkah” with chef Fany Gerson (the artist behind Fan-Fan Doughnuts), who will share the culinary connections between her Mexican and Eastern European heritage, and show how to make strawberry jelly doughnuts.

1930s Macy’s Christmas truck toy at NYHS

Are you wishing you could visit New York for the holidays to see the decorations?  At 8pm (December 9) sign up with the New-York Historical Society and let the Bowery Boys lead you on a virtual tour to explore how people celebrated the holidays in old New York at all the familiar places – department store windows, ice rinks, and Times Square.

If you want to participate in virtual events on a more serious note:

Today (December 7) at 5pm, the New-York Historical Society is hosting a discussion on how revising “American history” while the American revolution was happening affected the course of events.

Climate change wall at AMNH, which hosts a panel on the Paris accord on Wednesday

At noon on Wednesday (December 9), the American Museum of Natural History hosts an international powerhouse panel on climate change, climate goals, and the Paris agreement. Don’t miss this global discussion with Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, and performance by music icon-activist Patti Smith.

Many more programs are on the schedule, so register for as many of the topics and events that you can fit into your schedule.

Most of the events are free, but it’s always nice to add a thank-you donation.

1928 Demuth painting, I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, part of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection at The Met – which resisted modernism for a long time

Museum Updates

This week online, we went to the premiere of the film that portrays Washington’s farewell at Fraunces Tavern, and got to meet the director and from three amazing Revolutionary actors who portrayed Washington, Knox, and Tallmadge.

We also attended the Tenement Museum’s program discussing the lives of an Irish family living on the Lower East Side in the 1860s, the Met’s Making the Met discussion on 1929 and modernism (now on YouTube), and a special members-only event on the Rubin’ Museum’s new online digital collection of Himalayan art. Check it all out.