This is a fundraiser for the Museum of Coastal Carolina, Ingram Planetarium, and individual tree sponsors. The museum raises funds through admission to the festival and selling votes for favorite tree. Sponsors accrue funds through a silent auction for each tree’s lights and decorations. If the winning bidder also wants the tree, it is an additional $50 for the museum.
The Festival of Trees opens on Nov. 11 and closes on January 1, 2022. During that time the Festival will be open to the public on Thursday thru Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. Additional public hours from 1 pm to 4 pm will be offered on the following Sundays: Nov. 14, 21, 28 and Dec. 5, 12, 19.
HoliDAY at the Museum is on Nov. 26. This is a family friendly event including all day activities for children.
This beautifully produced feature film has a child-centered story that will enchant family audiences. A little girl named Mia discovers a mysterious piece of astronomical equipment whose secret powers can be used to change the world’s seasons. This engaging story is designed to interest and challenge children from 5 to 12 years old. A live star show follows the movie.
You’re invited to get up close with some of the more familiar creatures found in our ocean.
Our touch tank pool allows you to gently touch marine animals such as sea stars, sea urchins, whelks, horseshoe crabs, and hermit crabs. These animals live in a variety of habitats and have developed many ways to survive the waves and predators. Volunteers are on hand to assist and teach you about these incredible animals.
Did you know, when a sea urchin “hugs” your finger if you gently touch its spines, it’s actually checking you out: Are you food or predator? If you’re neither, the animal will just gradually release you.
This non-traditional holiday feature explores some of the most unique, fantastical, and even quirky holiday traditions that bring people together around the globe during the holiday season. After the program, one of our skilled presenters will take you on a tour of the winter sky’s highlights.
Alaska is a place like no other. For many people, a trip to Alaska is a life-long dream. For the people who live there, they depend on and protect an enduring way of life. But there are places in Alaska that are so remote and so wild, few Alaskans have ever gone there. This program will take you to these places — to the remote wilderness to see iconic animals and to landscapes that define the Last Frontier — places that make Alaska…Alaska.
Take an incredible journey of discovery that examines the ancient Maya’s sophisticated understanding of astronomy, architecture and mathematics. Learn how this knowledge intertwined with their creation myths. Discover how they observed and recorded the movement of the planets and the sun throughout the seasons. See how they used this knowledge to interpret and understand their world, predicting solstices, solar eclipses, weather patterns and planetary movements. This movie is followed by a live star show.
This is a live star show. The presenter will display the night sky on the planetarium’s dome ceiling and take you on a tour, pointing out the stars, planets, and constellations that are visible in our area. Later, as you are walking along the beach on a clear night, you will be able to recognize by name the celestial sights you see.
Join this sensory experience unlike any other as live lighting and laser effects accompany classic holiday music heard through the area’s best sound system.
This is a fundraiser for the Museum of Coastal Carolina, Ingram Planetarium, and individual tree sponsors. The museum raises funds through admission to the festival and selling votes for favorite tree. Sponsors accrue funds through a silent auction for each tree’s lights and decorations. If the winning bidder also wants the tree, it is an additional $50 for the museum.
The Festival of Trees opens on Nov. 11 and closes on January 1, 2022. During that time the Festival will be open to the public on Thursday thru Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. Additional public hours from 1 pm to 4 pm will be offered on the following Sundays: Nov. 14, 21, 28 and Dec. 5, 12, 19.
HoliDAY at the Museum is on Nov. 26. This is a family friendly event including all day activities for children.
On December 11 at 11:00, the Museum of Coastal Carolina presents a program called Holly Jolly Hermit Crabs. This program is all about hermit crabs – their anatomy, their house hunting, and more fun facts. The program includes a hermit crab-themed craft with a fun holiday spin.
The hermit crab program is hosted by Jamie Justice, the Education Coordinator for the Museum of Coastal Carolina and Ingram Planetarium. She received her Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from Bowling Green State University and her Master of Science in Environmental Science with concentrations in Marine and Coastal Education and Coastal Management from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Originally from Portsmouth, Ohio, she moved to Wilmington, NC for graduate school in 2017. Before coming to the museum, she worked in a variety of educational positions at summer camps and schools.