Good morning and happy…er…Friday. We think. It’s 2026. Let’s strut into the year with the confidence of the Pegasi on the entrance to the Hall.

Right 2025 you’ve been interesting. 2026 - let’s be better. Happy New Year friends - thanks for sharing, liking and generally putting up with our shenanigans! ❤️

Here are the New Year's resolutions we plan to break in the next week or so: Be nicer to #CuratorRob 🙄 Post about Fishbourne Roman Palace from time to time 🫡 Fewer typos 😳 Get over the whole "Villa" thing 🧐 Get engaged (we're looking at you, Merchy) 😍

An edited list of food for a feast at the Hall in 1448: 21 capons, 72 fowls, 6 suckling pigs, 12 rabbits, 6 herons, 2½oz of saffron, 10oz white sugar. To drink: 170 pints of wine and 416 pints of ale. Standard week between Christmas and New Year if you ask us…

Update: We have been full for approximately 96 hours. However we still think we have room for an orange matchmaker.

Well look at that, it’s Christmas Eve and the last day of our advent calendar. Therefore we had to finish with some Christmas tree/Great Hall roof action! 1/2

Happy Christmas Eve Eve! It’s Day 23 of our advent calendar and we’re delving into our minute books for a strange Christmas excerpt: “26th December 1804: Humane Society have permission to use any part of the Hall for the purpose of receiving objects and keeping them in suspended animation”. 1/2

Day 22 and for some of you the Christmas holidays have started! What are you up to? These folk in this 1695 painting by Jan Griffier the Elder are taking advantage of the cold and are doing some skating and sledding on a icy Dutch canal. If we did this on the Ouse now it would end badly... 1/2

It has felt particularly gloomy today (thank goodness for Christmas lights). However it’s the shortest day of the year so light nights are on their way back. Happy Winter Solstice everyone!

It’s Day 21 of our advent calendar and the fourth Sunday before advent so we wanted to share this festive photo of the Chapel on a sunny winter’s day. However in recent memory the Chapel hasn’t always been warm and dry… 1/2

Strutting into Saturday like it’s the last weekend before Christmas… Yes it’s Day 20 of our advent calendar and we’re looking at the Pegasuses/Pegasi/Pegsicles (okay we made up the last one) that feature on the Merchant Adventurers’ Coat of Arms. 1/2

It's Day 19 of our advent calendar and we remember helium balloons of unicorns that are no longer with us. *Cue solemn festive music* For those of you who are wondering what on earth we are gibbering on about, we are celebrating our one and only time we went viral (on the other place)... 1/2

It's a week until Christmas everyone! Therefore we think it's quite the achievement that it's taken us until Day 18 of our advent calendar to feature the Hall in snow. We think you'll agree that the Hall does look gorgeous in a winter wonderland. 1/2

We’ve been waiting for this post all year! 😍

Roses are red, violets are blue, it's day 17 of our advent calendar, so this love heart is for you. ❤️ There are many little details carved by those who have worked on the Hall. Are they permanent reminders of their skill or a demonstration of love for their craft? Or a bit of both? 1/2

Good morning from York and its majestic sky!

Carols drifting up from the Undercroft into the Great Hall. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. 🎄

On 16th December 1356, "Sir William Percehay, knight, grants to John Freeboys, John Crome, and Robert Smeton, citizens and merchants, York, all that piece of ground with the buildings, etc in Fossgate" The deed for the land on which the Hall is built was conveyed on this day 669 years ago! 🤯 1/2

Today's star of the show for Day 15 of our advent calendar is the most medieval of medieval things. Yes our Evidence Chest. Bought second hand in 1488 this oak chest kept all the important documents belonging to the Merchant Adventurers. That's 668 years of history... 🤯

The Mary Rose saw 33 Christmases during her career as a warship, but how would her crew have celebrated the festive season? Did they get to go home, or spend the season at sea? Find out in our blog - maryrose.org/christmas-on...

When you have the plague but you want to keep it festive…

When you have the plague but you want to keep it festive…

Day 14 of our advent calendar and we are looking back to 2020 when we all did things a little differently. Instead of a large Christmas tree we had a small/semi portable one which traversed around the Hall… 1/2

We hear people say, “That Merchant Adventurers’ Hall is nothing more than a jaw droppingly gorgeous timber framed roof”. We say to those people, “What more do you want?!” Day 13 of our advent calendar and we’re looking at the Court Room… 1/2

Occasionally when we’re not being ace as a medieval guild hall we are brilliant at something completely different. Day 12 of our advent calendar and it’s Lights, Camera, Action! This is the time that TV’s Victoria came to film in York… 1/2

Day 11 of our Advent Calendar and we want to introduce Dr Maud Sellers. Historian, archivist, author, traveller, curator and the first female Merchant Adventurer in 400 years when she became a Member in 1913. Here she is in a postcard from December 1912 on the steps of "My Merchants' Hall". 1/2

Just the sky on fire in York this morning. 🔥

Day 10 of our advent calendar and we're sharing one of our favourite photos of the Undercroft. Taken at this time of year - the sun is streaming through the medieval oak screen of the chapel. The space however hasn't always been so serene... 1/2

Get your applause ready, yes it's our festive fireplace for Day 9 of our Advent Calendar! The Hall is a hive of activity at this time of year with Christmas celebrations happening almost every day. However the guests haven't always been so well behaved... 1/2

It's a new week and day 8 of our advent calendar and we're going to look at a window. This is a 668 year old window so it is rather special... 1/2

It’s the second Sunday in Advent and Day 7 of our advent calendar. Therefore it would be remiss of us not to share the chapel in candlelight. May it soothe and calm your Sunday… 1/2

We're celebrating 12 Days of #MedievalIlluminations. Today, 9 medieval moons. Tag yourself, we're the tiny blue one. 🌚

Day 6 of our advent calendar brings a seasonal scene to your Saturday in the form of the Fossgate entrance to the Hall. Pretty yet functional just like us…

It’s Day 5 of our advent calendar and today we are offering some gift advice. Looking for that unique present for your 18th century man about town? We have just the thing! 1/2

Day Four of our advent calendar brings you a postcard from the late 19th century of our chapel. We are also sharing a tiny snippet from our minute books which is guaranteed to warm you up! 1/2

Day Three of our advent calendar and today's 'window' is rather special if we do say so ourselves. Yes we are going medieval. Seems fitting for a medieval guild hall we hear you say... 1/2

It's Day 2 of our advent calendar and look, no photo of the Hall (yes we can show restraint)! We are in fact digging out the silver. But this isn't any old silver. Oh no. This is a Commonwealth silver peg tankard made in York... 1/2

It's the 1st December therefore we are on a countdown to Christmas with our very special advent calendar. We may have already peaked with today's 'window'... 1/2

Why hello there sunshine - just in time for the start of Advent. ☀️

Happy weekend! It is a grey and gloomy day so here we are sending some illumination (in a suitably Dickensian way) to brighten up your Saturday. 😎

We’re not just a pretty face, we’re also dab hands at a Pom Pom! Celebrating the Merchant Adventurers historic links with the wool trade, our Christmas tree in York Minster is a riot of woolly colour! The Christmas Tree festival opens tomorrow and you can vote for your favourite - hint hint. 😉 🎄

This one looks good from the outside!

Behold in all its wondrous glory. The Great Hall Christmas tree!

How it’s going… …don’t tell us if there are gaps. 🫣

Sneaky peak. 🤫

We heard this fact today and well it's amazing so we wanted to share: Every molecule of oxygen you breath has been inhaled by every person who has ever lived. EVERY.PERSON.WHO.HAS.EVER.LIVED. Oh and dinosaurs too. 🦕

Morning! It's arrived. Yes it's Christmas tree week! Our trees will arrive on Wednesday but here's a little look back at last year's Undercroft bobby dazzler. Swit. Swoo.

Let’s all aspire to be #SundayHuxley. Not just today but every day. 💛

Snow! No only kidding. It’s chucking it down with rain and even the Hall looks a bit sad in that so we thought we’d share this winter wonderland view of the Hall from 2018 instead. Happy Saturday! ❄️

@merchantshallyork.org: is this what you want to be when you grow up? (Although you're perfect as you are 🥰). #westminsterhall