Joliet Historical Museum hosts Valentine’s Day party for kids

Joliet — The Joliet Area Historical Museum hosted its first-ever Kids Valentine’s Day party Saturday.

The event is one of the museum’s efforts to plan holiday-themed programs for local children this year.

Local children and their families were welcomed to the museum’s basement meeting room for an afternoon of games, dancing and Valentine’s Day-themed crafts.

Event organizer Kelly Klobucher said the Valentine’s Day party is part of a series of holiday-adjacent activities the museum is launching in 2025 to appeal to kids.

“We do a lot of adult programming, but we aren’t always geared towards kids,” Klobucher said. “We decided this year to try to schedule regular events around holidays. Our first one was New Year’s Eve Eve, where we had a countdown and balloon drop at noon, and we have another one planned in March for St. Patrick’s Day.”

The museum also is offering a free attendance day for everyone on Presidents Day that will feature special kid-friendly trivia stations about the presidents.

Attendees at the Valentine’s Day event were encouraged to make valentines for their friends and family members, as well as make foam valentine decorations. A DJ was on-site playing kid-friendly music for dancing and leading the kids in party games such as “Simon Says,” musical chairs and limbo.

“It’s nice to see the kids having fun, especially in an educational kind of place,” museum employee Regina Zavala said. “I was at the New Year’s Eve one, too, and it was a lot of fun. The kids just went crazy all running to with the balloons when we did the drop. It was great.”

“I love coming to the museum events myself,” said Krysten McGee, who was attending with her son Tadhg. “I used to come to the Halloween party here with my older kids, so when I heard they were having a Valentine’s Day party, I knew he’d love it.”