Open Something Greater This Holiday

Unwrap the Gifts to the City
On select days throughout the season, we're literally wrapping up the museum's newest acquisitions—our gifts to the city—for our visitors to open. Be sure to look for the wrapped presents on your journey through the galleries. When you find one, go ahead and open it; it's a gift for you and all of Chicago!

Play the Game, Get a Gift
Celebrate our recently acquired artworks with our Gifts to the City game. When you solve it, take your completed game to the Museum Shop where we have yet another little gift for you!

Let Us Do the Wrapping
Cross some items off your holiday shopping list at the Museum Shop, and we'll make sure your gifts look spectacular. Every day we'll be offering free gift wrapping in the Michigan Avenue lobby from 12:30 to 5:30.

The Littlest Gifts
They might not be wrapped up on the outside, but the Holiday Thorne Rooms are bursting with tiny little presents inside. Featured last year on NBC's Today show and one of the Art Institute's most popular attractions, these absorbing period miniature rooms don specially made holiday finery that showcases historical traditions and offers a window into festivities of the past. New to the decorating tradition this year is the Pennsylvania Dutch (German) room. And, for the first time in 50 years, an original German Rococo room will be displayed.

A Giant Present
The holiday spirit grows to new dimensions with our monumental ball of mistletoe—it's nearly four feet in diameter! Head to the Grand Staircase to steal a kiss with your sweetheart or snap a picture with your family.

Unwrapping—Digital Style
Challenge your artwork memory with our holiday game on Facebook. We'll be digitally unwrapping various masterworks one small piece at a time; see if you can be the first to guess the identity of the wrapped-up work.