Historical Museum Celebrates Legendary Local Traditions

The folks at Marco Island Historical Museum showed some serious creativity in putting together their latest rotating exhibit, Holiday Traditions in Florida. And the Little Bar crew saw their creativity and raised them one by showing up in their pajamas for the opening, Tuesday, July 2, in the Alan and Linda Sandlin Gallery.                                              .

The always-effervescent Little Bar crew just finished celebrating Spammy Jammy, their annual season-ending pajama party, a week earlier. So instead of packing away their PJs for the summer, they simply put them back on and headed over to help the museum crowd celebrate.

“We did get quite a few looks,” said Little Bar co-owner Niki Bauer with a laugh. “We had fun!”

Everyone seemed to be having fun, including Marco Island Historical Society’s Executive Director Pat Rutledge.

“The thing that makes this exhibit so special,” Rutledge said, "is that we had people from the community that helped us to put it together. For example, Spammy Jammy – Nikki and Ray from Little Bar were the ones who loaned us pieces that tell that story. Cherise Loy loaned us her very own Marco Angel that we put into the Christmas Island Style element." 

The core of the exhibit are the panels that fill the walls of the gallery, on loan from the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee. The panels tell of holiday traditions throughout the state. But the heart of the exhibit focuses on local traditions.

“We thought we would take it up a level,” Rutledge said, "and add in things that recognize our unique celebrations here, Marco Island, Goodland, and in Naples. So that's why you'll see things like Swamp Buggy Races, our very own maypole, Christmas Island Style, and Spammy Jammy—who doesn't love that? We also wanted to make it a fun exhibit where people could use their smartphones, take pictures, and on the way out leave a note about how they celebrate holidays in a special way.”

One patron wrote that his family has a tradition of ordering Chinese Food from Jackie’s on Christmas Day.

Marco Island Historical Society Board President Mike O’Rourke enjoyed the opening, which drew 75 attendees.

"I'm very excited about the exhibit opening,” O’Rourke said. "I think it's a great representation in terms of all the fantastic traditions that take place here - both the local and some of the regional type traditions that take place. The celebrations that we all enjoy. It's fantastic!"

The Holiday Traditions in Florida exhibit runs through September 21. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, 180 S. Heathwood Drive, Marco Island, Florida, 34145.