On the Friday after Thanksgiving, the Calf Barn at the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm fills with model railroad modules. The Stoney Creek Model Railroad Club built each one to scale, showing places near and far. A scavenger hunt runs through the layout, and children who finish it can earn an engineer certificate. The trains run from noon to 3 p.m. on 13 days between November 27 and December 30. No registration is needed.
About a hundred yards of farm lane separate the Calf Barn from the 1840 Van Hoosen Farmhouse, and the season works differently on each side. The barn is open to walk-ins. The farmhouse hosts Santa, a holiday tea and the candlelight tours, and every one of those needs a ticket. A December at 1005 Van Hoosen Road goes best when the farmhouse events are booked first and the train hours fill in the rest of the day.
The Calf Barn runs on walk-in hours
Here is the full train schedule for 2026:
- November: Friday the 27th, Saturday the 28th, Sunday the 29th
- December: Saturday the 5th, Saturday the 12th, Sunday the 13th, Saturday the 19th, Sunday the 20th, and the 26th through the 30th
Every date runs noon to 3 p.m. The last stretch, December 26 through 30, runs from a Saturday into a Wednesday. That is a rare weekday option for families with children home on break, or with guests still in town after Christmas.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and students. Museum members get in free. The event listing notes that December 5 and December 19 have their own admission arrangements, so check those two dates before you go.
The train ticket covers more than the trains. It includes the museum's permanent exhibits and the 1 p.m. guided tour. That tour takes only 15 people, first come, first served. So even on the walk-in days, the one part of the visit with limited room is the trip into the farmhouse. If the tour matters to your group, get there before 1 p.m. and put your name in early.
The farmhouse is where the tickets are
Each holiday event in or around the farmhouse is ticketed through Eventbrite, and each has a set time slot.
| Event | Date and time | Price listed | Where it happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Visit with Santa & Mrs. Claus | Saturday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. | From $7 | Check-in at the Dairy Barn, then a wagon ride to the farmhouse |
| Holiday Tea in the Farmhouse | Wednesday, Dec. 9, 10 to 11 a.m. or 2 to 3 p.m. | $15 to $20 | Inside the decorated farmhouse |
| Candlelight Walking Tours | Thursday, Dec. 10, 6 to 9 p.m. | $8 to $10 | Stations across the grounds and in the farmhouse |
Santa tickets went on sale at midnight on October 31, and the museum's Eventbrite page lists them from $7. The visit has a set order. Families check in at the Dairy Barn and wait until their name is called over the speaker system. Then they board a farm wagon to the farmhouse, where Santa sits by the fireplace. Afterward there is a cookie and a cup of apple juice in the kitchen. The museum suggests bringing a Christmas list and a camera.
The Holiday Tea is the smallest event of the season, with two one-hour seatings on the same Wednesday. The museum opens the farmhouse with Christmas trees, greenery and vintage gifts. Guests have tea and light cookies while learning how the Van Hoosens and the wider Rochester community celebrated winter. In late October, the 10 a.m. seating's listing already said "Few tickets left," more than five weeks before the tea. If the morning seating is gone, the 2 p.m. seating is the other option.
The Candlelight Walking Tours happen the next evening. Each guided tour lasts an hour and moves through historical scenes around the grounds. Stops include historic campfire cooking, a cappella Christmas carols and the decorated farmhouse. Some stations are indoors and some are outside, and the museum asks guests to dress in layers. Tickets are nonrefundable.
Building a day across the farm lane
The two kinds of events are meant to be combined. Three pairings come straight from how the museum set up the season.
- Santa on December 5, with the trains while you wait. December 5 is also a train day, and anyone with a Santa ticket can visit the model train exhibit free while waiting to be called. Children can also color or write a letter to Santa. The trains start at noon, so a Santa slot after noon gives children a lot to do before their name comes over the speaker.
- The hobby talk on December 12, then the layout. "Model Railroading: More Than Just a Hobby" runs 10 to 11 a.m. and is free, though the listing asks guests to reserve a spot. Local model railroader Rick Horn covers how layouts are built, why people enjoy the hobby, well-known railroaders, and the clubs and conventions in the area. Guests can then visit All Aboard! when it opens at noon. That gives older children and train-minded adults a morning lesson before they see the modules.
- Old Fashioned Christmas on December 19, with the whole farm open. From noon to 4 p.m., this self-guided event has chestnuts roasting over an open fire, students from the Oakland Youth Orchestra, crafts, snacks, local history, and a chance to learn about Stony Creek wildlife. The train exhibit in the Calf Barn is part of the day, and wagons carry guests between museum buildings. Tickets on the event page range from $0 to $5. Most of the event is outdoors, so dress for the weather.
On December 5 and December 19, a single ticket gets you into both the barn and the farmhouse side of the season. Those are also the two dates with their own train admission rules, so it is worth checking both listings before choosing between them.
Why the season splits along these buildings
The way the season is set up follows from the buildings themselves. According to the city's history of the farm, the farm began in 1823 with Lemuel Taylor's family. Sarah Ann Taylor married Joshua Van Hoosen in 1854. The farm later passed to Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, who earned a Ph.D. in animal genetics in 1921 and ran the farm using scientific management. The Calf Barn and Dairy Barn come from that working-farm era. Barns are built to hold a crowd, which makes them a natural home for a model railroad layout and a Santa check-in line.
The farmhouse came earlier and is much smaller. The museum's farmhouse page dates it to 1840, when it replaced the Taylor family's log cabin in Stoney Creek Village. The page also notes that the house was renovated from 1923 to 1926, while family members traveled, Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen among them, to teach medical classes and learn surgical techniques. A house built for one family cannot take a walk-in crowd. That is why the regular 1 p.m. tour stops at 15 people and the holiday tea is sold by the seating.
The whole museum covers 16 acres along Stoney Creek, inside a village listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The candlelight tours and Old Fashioned Christmas use that whole setting, from the creek and the farm lane to the outdoor stations between buildings.
After December 30
The trains run through Wednesday, December 30. The museum's programs page describes the exhibit as running on select weekends in November, December and January, but the 2026 schedule has no January dates. If dates are added later, they will appear in the All Aboard! collection on Eventbrite.
Once the holiday season ends, the museum goes back to its regular drop-in hours, Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. Admission stays $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors, and the farmhouse tour still starts at 1 p.m. The grounds stay open all year. For more on what the city's parks offer in the colder months, see our look at what the Rochester Hills parks pass actually covers. For the season that came just before this one, there is our Rochester Hills fall shortlist.
If family is visiting this December and you are working out which Saturday goes to Santa, which goes to the trains and where the tea fits, Jane Evans is glad to share what she knows about Rochester Hills and its seasonal traditions. Let's Connect.