Photo courtesy of LSU Rural Life Museum

From autumnal outings to winter whimsy

As the holiday season rapidly descends upon Baton Rouge, the LSU Rural Life Museum near Essen Lane provides the ideal fall and winter holiday experiences for lovers of old-fashioned family fun. From harvest tidings to Christmas festivities, the museum brings seasons past to life.

October at the LSU Rural Life Museum brings Harvest Days, a two-day celebration of harvest time that ushers in the fall season on the historic Burden family plantation. This long-running festival features local skilled artisans and tradition-bearers, delectable food, mule-driven wagon rides and tractor hayrides, storytelling, period-dressed docent demonstrations, and so much more—all surrounded by authentic historic objects and buildings straight from Louisiana’s rural past. 

Children and adults alike can wander the acreage on the first weekend in October to discover a plethora of hands-on activities straight from the 1800s. Visitors can dip their own candles, learn how to write with real quill pens, weave a basket, and listen to or join a conversational French table française at the soft opening of the new 1920s LeBlanc General Store exhibit. The Baton Rouge Gem and Mineral Society will be in attendance, as well as the ever-popular LSU Raptor Rehab crew and a few of their feathered friends. Those in need of a dancing break will find an energetic respite throughout both festival days with performances by the Delta Gentlemen, Hot Tunica, Kitchen Session, the Louisiane Vintage Dancers, and the Lagniappe Historic Dance and Pastime Society.

The LSU Rural Life Museum offers a trove of living history, and much of it is interpreted by skilled docents who demonstrate old-world skills like woodworking and blacksmithing. Harvest Days attendees will witness the open-hearth historic kitchen come alive with wood-fired dishes, filling the air with the smells of historic rural Louisiana foodways.  

Be sure to come hungry, as a variety of scrumptious vittles will be served in the food tent, including jambalaya and gumbo, homemade cracklins with the museum’s signature cane syrup, and hot kettle corn. Parents never fear — hot dogs and nachos are also available. 

Read more about this year’s Harvest Days on the LSU Rural Life Museum website, and purchase your tickets online. 

Modern holiday shopping sprees and marathon party-hosting often leave folks begging for a peaceful break, and the Christmas celebration at LSU Rural Life Museum is a perfect contender. The Burden farm dresses up for the festivities, too, and it’s about as far from the commercialized holiday as one can get in December. 

On December 6 this year, A Rural Life Christmas offers a different kind of holiday cheer, steeped in Louisiana’s old ways and rife with interactive fun. Visitors can make their own candles and churn their own butter, craft tin-can ornaments, and—granted a good crop—weave gorgeous grapevine holiday wreaths. Knowledgeable docents guide attendees and demonstrate how Christmas was celebrated over a century ago. 

The museum’s Christmas celebration is truly an event for music lovers. This year, the Bells Jubilate Handbell Choir rings in the season from the exhibit barn, with performances by the Lagniappe Dulcimer Society, the Greater King David Baptist Church’s Alpha and Omega Men’s Choir, and more. 

A bagpipe procession will kick off a Louisiana Christmas tradition that museum director Bill Stark is excited to bring back in 2026: a bonfire on the grounds in front of the museum. Feast on a famous gumbo made by Golden Meadow-native volunteer, Mr. L.J., or choose from several other tasty dinner options as the kids await the arrival of Papa Noël. A Rural Life Christmas begins at 10 am and ends at dusk—and if you’re still itching for more merriment, head over to the adjacent Burden Museum & Gardens for the Louisiana Lights Christmas display, which begins at nightfall.

Buy your tickets to A Rural Life Christmas and the separately ticketed Louisiana Lights display online.