Museum board discusses dino Christmas party

Snow and low temperatures reduced turnout at this year’s Dino Christmas celebration Saturday at the Holiday Village Mall,  Val Hickman, vice chair of the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum Board said Monday.

“It was a cold nasty day out,” Hickman said. “I don’t know if I would’ve taken my children out.”

The scheduled meeting lacked a quorum, so no official business was taken up.

Kathy Shrager, who also sits on the board, said it was disappointing that turnout wasn’t higher.

The Dino Christmas is a dinosaur-themed Christmas party for children held outside the museum in the common area of the Holiday Village Mall each year, and coincided this past weekend with several other activities in the mall.

Hickman said no official count was kept of how many attended the celebration. However, of the 100 gingerbread houses that were prepared for children to decorate, 49 were left.

Not all children who came to the gathering decorated gingerbread houses, Hickman said.

Other activities this year included cookie decorating, creating paper snowflakes and making beaded candy canes. Cory Pierson, who makes balloon animals for children at community events, and Bailey Miller, who was dressed in a dinosaur costume, entertained children.

Despite the lower-than-expected attendance, Hickman said, turnout was not terrible and people who attended seemed to enjoy the activities.

She said leftover gingerbread houses will be donated to local elementary school classrooms, while the excess cookies will be given to the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line.  

In other business, Hickman said the museum will likely close from the middle of January to the middle of February, for cleaning and updating museum displays.  

No dates could be formally decided because there was no quorum.  

She said the temporary closure, should it happen, will be at a time when foot traffic to the museum is down.

“There aren’t a lot of tourists around in January,” Hickman said.