All aboard for a lifetime of memories! Your favorite holiday tradition returns to the Brandywine Museum of Art with model trains, dollhouses, and other seasonal wonders, along with festive trees adorned with our signature, handmade “Critter” ornaments.
A holiday favorite since 1972, the Brandywine Railroad features model trains running on 2,000 feet of track and contains more than 1,000 pieces, including locomotives, passenger and freight trains, and trolleys that pass through a small village, a farm, factories, a drive-in movie theater and even a carnival. A dazzling array of both toy and scale model trains can be seen chugging through the varied scenery of the expansive O-gauge layout, including those made by Lionel, Williams, Atlas, Mike’s Train House, K-line and others. There's also a variety of interactive push buttons and foot pedals for visitors to engage with on the display.
Support for the Brandywine Railroad holiday train display is provided by The Davenport Family Foundation Fund for Exhibitions, Chase, and Herr Foods.
NEW THIS YEARGreeting Seasons: Wintry Joy in Children's IllustrationImage
As part of Brandywine’s celebrated annual holiday display, the Museum will showcase new work by four celebrated contemporary illustrators in the special exhibition, Greeting Seasons: Wintry Joy in Children’s Illustration. The illustrations in Greeting Seasons highlight experiences of children and families finding delight in the transitions between autumn and winter. As foliage turns golden and skies turn grey, the protagonists of these stories rake leaves, ice skate, and build snowmen, filling the shortening days with pleasurable activity. The artworks highlight the many ways to enjoy the colder months of the year, both by venturing outdoors and watching the world through a windowpane. Greeting Seasons will feature four celebrated illustrators, some of whom have been creating children’s books for decades: Micha Archer, Kevin Henkes, Chris Raschka, and Audrey Helen Weber. Micha Archer hand-stamps designs onto colorful papers that she then uses to create intricate, textured collages. In works from her book Wind Watchers, a group of children consider the role wind plays during all the seasons of the year. Kevin Henkes is celebrated for his dozens of picture books that he authors and illustrates in ink and watercolor, many of which feature mice as the protagonist. Greeting Seasons will feature illustrations from Henkes’s book Is It Spring?, which traces the slow passage of a long winter through the perspectives of children and animals. In his illustrations for the book I Hear the Snow, I Smell the Sea, Chris Raschka uses a mix of watercolor and oil pastels to depict how a blind girl experiences autumn and winter through touch, hearing, and taste. Finally, artist Audrey Helen Weber creates works in gouache, watercolor, and acrylic paint, and has made illustrations for children’s books, national newspapers, and clothing lines. Greeting Seasons will include scenes from their book Year Round that recount the eccentric questions children might ask during the winter months. |
Holiday Hours:
Beginning November 14, 2026 through January 10, 2027, the Brandywine Museum of Art will be open daily, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Thanksgiving & Christmas Day, and closing early on Christmas Eve at 1 p.m.). The Brandywine Railroad holiday train display and Greeting Seasons: Wintry Joy in Children's Illustration are both included in the cost of general admission.