The Estonian Open Air Museum invites you to enjoy the festive season

The Estonian Open Air Museum invites you to enjoy the festive season – to stroll through a historical landscape, breathe in the invigorating forest and sea air, sample Christmas dishes at the Kolu Inn, step into cozy farmhouses, hold Christmas events, shop for gifts at the Lau village store, take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage, and have a wonderful time together with your loved ones.

The Estonian Open Air Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00 (entrance from 10:00 to 17:00). Pre-booked events are also held on Mondays. We will also be open to all visitors on two December Mondays — December 22 and 29.

We are closed on December 24–25, 2025, as well as on December 31, 2025, and January 1, 2026.

Additional information about opening hours is available here.

Special Christmas lunch menu at Kolu Inn

The Christmas season begins already on the last weekend of November, when Kolu Inn starts offering a special festive menu featuring dishes from century-old recipe notebooks and cookbooks – from hearty goose soup and stuffed swede to golden saffron loafs, white spiced biscuits and raisin wine. Each dish tells its own story about the gastronomic culture of our ancestors and is suitable as a full meal for one person or as a tasting experience for two. The special menu is available from 30 November to 14 December, you can view it here.

If you are planning a Christmas lunch for a group, see the festive and Christmas table menus here. The inn’s master’s chamber is suitable for warm gatherings of up to 18 people, and the banquet hall (the former stable) can accommodate up to 120 guests. Additional information about the rooms and booking options is available here.

Christmas Village, 13–14 December

This year the residents of the Christmas Village celebrate the season through the printed word. Featured in places of honour are the Bible, calendars, cookbooks, handbooks, Burda and Kodu-Anttila, as well as other popular publications of their times. Visitors can see how printed materials shaped our Christmas mood through the ages and helped create new traditions. Choral singing fills the Sutlepa Chapel, and refreshments are available at Kolu Inn. Father Christmas and the Christmas Goat stroll through the village streets.

Christmas trees are brought into the houses, each decorated according to its historical period. Among the many different trees, the “Christmas cactus” of the Lau store stands out in particular – it lived in the same family for several generations and was donated to the museum last year.

The full Christmas Village programme can be viewed here. Admission to the Christmas Village is with a regular museum ticket.

Attention! E-tickets are valid for 10 calendar days from the date of purchase; we recommend buying e-tickets starting from 5 December.

The Christmas Village of the Estonian Open Air Museum in Rocca al Mare can be reached from the Christmas Market on Tallinn’s Town Hall Square in 15–20 minutes – and the return trip takes just as long!

Gifts of experience and events between the holidays

The friendly shopkeepers of the Lau village store – now sporting a new red roof after the summer – have wrapped plenty of candy bundles, a perfect addition to a child’s gift.

A family gift card for the Estonian Open Air Museum will also fit nicely into Santa’s bag. It is valid for 365 calendar days and allows you to plan your museum visit at a convenient time. The price of a family gift card is €38.

Starting from November 29, gingerbread boxes with shepherd boy Ants and Muri stickers will be on sale at the cash desk, in the kolhoz apartment building and in the Lau village shop. The dough was made and the animal-shaped gingerbreads were baked by our hostess. The box contains almost all the animals and birds of the museum farm: sheep, goats, rabbits, turkeys, geese, roosters and hens, as well as the cat Vasso and horses. In winter, the herd is in the barn and shepherd boy Ants is at school, but the animals need care and attention all the time. We use 100% of the total sales proceeds from these gingerbreads for the welfare of the animals and birds of the museum farm. One box costs 5 euros and each buyer does a good deed for our animals.

Events between the holidays: the scent of traditional Christmas gingerbread cookies will fill the multi-apartment collective farm building on 7 December. New Year’s fortune-telling will take place at the Seto farmstead and at the Old Believer’s homestead from the Lake Peipus region on 11 January. In the Kolga barn-shed, the hostess introduces visitors to the farm animals and poultry from Thursday to Sunday at 11:00, 13:00, and 15:00.