December in Baton Rouge often means a trip to see the lights. This year, two of the city's museums are giving families a reason to come inside the gates, too, with holiday traditions that lean into history and a little nostalgia.

Creole Christmas at Magnolia Mound, Dec. 13

BREC's Magnolia Mound Museum + Historic Site hosts its annual Creole Christmas + Holiday Fair on Sunday, Dec. 13, from noon to 5 p.m. at 2161 Nicholson Drive. The afternoon brings period demonstrations, dancers, West African storytelling, wagon rides and a marketplace of local vendors, so it's a handy place to knock out a few gifts. The day ends with the site's annual bonfire to welcome Papa Noel.

The setting does a lot of the work. The main house was built around 1791 as a small settler's home and expanded in the early 1800s, when it anchored a 900-acre operation fronting the Mississippi River. Today it's an accredited historic house museum that tells the story of the Creole culture, and of the free and enslaved people who lived and labored there.

Coca-Cola Christmas at LASM, Dec. 6 to Jan. 3

Downtown, the Louisiana Art & Science Museum brings back Coca-Cola Christmas: A Month of Magic. The kickoff is Sunday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 5 p.m., during the museum's December Free First Sunday. Coca-Cola holiday box displays stay up through Jan. 3, closing out with January's Free First Sunday.

The headline event is Christmas Express: A Louisiana Christmas Under the Stars on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 6 p.m. It pairs live a cappella music with projections on the planetarium dome, followed by a reception with sweets and seasonal drinks. Tickets haven't been released yet, and LASM says more of its lineup is coming soon.

Pencil in both. Between a Papa Noel bonfire on Nicholson Drive and a planetarium full of carols on River Road, December has a couple of traditions worth adding to the family calendar.

Photo courtesy of BREC's Magnolia Mound Museum + Historic Site.