Looming finals, lawn displays and increased consumerism are all signs that the holidays are here.

At this often busy time, the Farm House Museum is offering some alternative holiday activities known as Victorian Holidays.

“They’re all sorts of hands-on activities that would’ve been here 100 years ago when the college was young,” said Mary Atherly, Farm House Museum curator. “It takes you back to a time when things were a little bit slower.”

The celebration, which begins each year in late November and continues through December, consists of activities such as cookie and ornament decorating, horse drawn wagon rides and a puppet show.

“Victorian Holidays is a celebration that’s focusing on the college during the first 50 years, 1860-1910,” said Atherly, also the Museums Collections Manager. “What we have is entertainment, types of entertainment that they would have had back then.”

The celebration is named for Queen Victoria of England, Atherly said.

“When Queen Victoria was alive, she had so much influence on the morals and what was going on in the country at the time,” she said.

There will be plaster ornament painting and horse-drawn wagon rides Sunday at 2 p.m.

“[We are doing this] so that people can travel around and see what it is like to travel during that time in a horse and buggy, horse and wagon,” Atherly said.

Pamela Alberta of the Gypsy Puppet Theatre will be performing a puppet show titled “Old Mother Hubbard Meets Her Match” on Sunday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m.

“Puppet shows have been very popular for hundreds of years anyway, so it was another type of entertainment that they would have had,” Atherly said.

Children will be able to make puppets that they can take home with them after the show.

Other activities such as tours have already begun.

“[Last Sunday], we had some children in to decorate cookies, and that was a lot of fun,” said Danelle Zellmer, student worker at the Farm House.

The house is also decorated and Christmas music is often playing, usually on a piano or pump organ.

“We usually have some music or something going on for the adults while the kids can be working on an ornament,” said Zellmer, freshman in public service and administration in agriculture. “We’re trying to get the families to come all together and spend quality time together.”

Victorian Holidays has been a staple of the Farm House for more than 20 years.

“We started calling it Victorian Holidays as a part of the museum which really started in 1976,” Atherly said.

However, the tradition started much earlier than that, she said.

“It began when Iowa State was a very young college,” Atherly said. “At the end of the semester, the professors who lived on campus when the college was first built invited the students and other faculty into their homes to celebrate the end of the semester.”

Atherly encourages people of all ages to come experience Victorian Holidays.

“It’s really a very friendly atmosphere,” Atherly said. “I think that anyone can enjoy the sights of the house as well as a glimpse into a different time period in the history of Iowa State.”

Farm House is open noon to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays.