FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 24, 2025
Cincinnati Museum Center's holiday gift guide
Gifts to complete all your shopping in one place, on or before Black Friday
CINCINNATI - Whether you’re celebrating the eight nights of Hanukkah, the 12 days of Christmas or Festivus’s one night aluminum pole-raising, Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) has the perfect gift for everyone on your list this holiday season. Complete your holiday shopping in one trip and be wrapped and ready for your Secret Santa, white elephant or airing of grievances.
Here are CMC’s top picks this holiday season:
Gift tidings of curiosity and joy with a Cincinnati Museum Center Membership – the gift that keeps on giving all year long. Featuring free museum admission, exclusive Members-only early entry, discounts on featured exhibitions and OMNIMAX® films and more, a Membership makes the entire year a season of joy. Plus, all Memberships are 20% off through January 5, 2026. 
For the amateur architect on your list, let them build an icon brick-by-brick with a 738-piece Mini Building Blocks Union Terminal.
Or make the National Historic Landmark a little more magical with a light cascade of snow in a classic Union Terminal snow globe.
Drink in the history, legends and icons of the Queen City with a range of glassware that declares your love for Cincinnati (and hydration).
Make a fashion statement with a shirt that says you have good taste in clothes… and museums.
Snag a huggable, snuggable plush T. rex that’ll take the teeth out of bedtime. (Don’t forget to bring it on a field trip the Dinosaur Hall where it can see some of its Jurassic cousins.)
You can’t go wrong with a classic. Grab an expanding sphere, give it a toss and watch it grow five times its size. Just make sure to grab a second one because you’ll have so much fun you’ll want to keep one for yourself.
Get lost in nature… without getting lost. A pocket compass will have you ready for your next adventure. (If you need ideas on where to take it, check out Ohio: Wild at Heart in the OMNIMAX® Theater, where the state’s parks dazzle on the dome screen. Or visit the John A. and Judy Ruthven Get Into Nature Gallery inside Union Terminal or the 21,000-acre Richard & Lucile Durrell Edge of Appalachia Preserve System in Adams County.)
Relive the story of one intrepid rock and its journey across the stars to a foreign planet with Bok’s Giant Leap. The delightful story is an illustrated version of the speech Neil Armstrong delivered when he donated a Moon rock (Bok itself!) to Cincinnati Museum Center. (You can meet Bok in the Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery presented by the Harold C. Schott Foundation.)
Trade the eight maids a-milking for 50 queens a-chemistrying with a copy of Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky. Maybe someone on your list will be number 51. (CMC’s STEM Girls program can introduce your future scientist with local women in STEM fields.)
Dream big and build small. Help the future engineer on your list build their first motorized robot, then see what they dream up next.
Treat that special person on your list like the work of art they are by adorning them with a pair of Charley Harper’s classic cardinals in earring form.
BONUS: Give a gift that gives twice with a donation to Cincinnati Museum Center. A donation scratches your altruistic itch and makes a generational impact by providing exhibits and experiences that spark curiosity.
You can shop CMC tickets and Memberships online at cincymuseum.org and order gift items for pickup or delivery from CMC’s online retail store at shopcincymuseum.com.
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About Cincinnati Museum Center
Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) at Union Terminal is a nationally recognized, award-winning institution housed in a National Historic Landmark. CMC is a vital community resource that sparks curiosity, inspiration, epiphany and dialogue. CMC was awarded the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and received accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 2012, one of a select few museums in the nation to receive both honors. Organizations within CMC include the Cincinnati History Museum, Museum of Natural History & Science, The Children’s Museum, Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX® Theater, Cincinnati History Library and Archives and the Geier Collections and Research Center. Housed in historic Union Terminal – a National Historic Landmark restored in 2018 and recognized as the nation’s 45th most important building by the American Institute of Architects – CMC welcomes more than 1.8 million visits annually, making it one of the most visited museums in the country. For more information, visit cincymuseum.org.
