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HOW TO DECORATE FOR THE HOLIDAYS? Curators at historic house museums across the country deal with the perennial challenge in ways that are as unique as the properties themselves.
Ironically, up north at the Victoria Mansion in Portland, Maine, the original owners probably never celebrated Christmas. The Italian villa-style mansion—also known as the Morse-Libby House—was built between 1858 and 1860 as a summer home for Ruggles Sylvester Morse, a Maine native who made his fortune as a hotelier in New Orleans. The next owners, “the J.R. Libby family (who owned a local department store) usually spent winter holidays at their lake house,” says Tim Brosnihan, assistant director of the museum. In recent years, the museum has made up for lost time by decorating every room in the house—a visual extravaganza, given the ornate interiors that were created by Gustave Herter, a German-trained cabinetmaker and interior designer. Since there is no “tradition,” each year the museum offers up a different theme. This year, volunteers decorated each room with a Christmas song in mind. And so, the parlor—the largest room in the house—has a crèche (“O Little Town of Bethlehem”); the tree in the sitting room is decorated with starfish and scallop shells, and a telescope is focused on the nearby harbor (“I Saw Three Ships,”), while the reception room is ready to welcome carolers with drinks from the huge nineteenth-century punch bowl (“Here We Come A-wassailing”).
The Merchant’s House in Manhattan has gone even farther afield with its “From Candlelight to Bubble Light” display, decorating the 1850s house with a collection of 1950s and 1960s Christmas paraphernalia. A welcoming crew of brightly lit plastic Santas and Frosty the Snowmen greets guests in the entry hall; in the front parlor, framed with ionic columns, a tinsel tree towers over gifts such as Mr. Potato Head; a bubble-light tree sits atop a marble-top table, and an 1850s Irish maid mannequin is decked out with an apron straight out of Ozzie and Harriet. Deb O’Nair, a volunteer who collected all these ornaments over the years, says that she did stop short of using lead-based crinkly “icicles” that children once loved to throw on trees and themselves: “I got rid of them in an ‘environmentally safe manner.’”
Local traditions are often highlighted. The museums of Ledoux Street in Taos, including the Blumenschein and the Harwood—once the homes of artists who put this northern New Mexican town on the culture map—all take part in the “Lighting of Ledoux.” Farolitos (little candles in paper bags), glowing along roads and sidewalks, lead to plazas ablaze in the light of luminarias (bonfires of pinion). The custom, according to Nancy Delperot, manager of the Blumenschein Museums, dates back to pre-Christian Spain.
In New Orleans’ Vieux Carré the emphasis is on feasts. The table at the Hermann-Grima House, built in 1831, is loaded with seasonal sweets and beverages that were served on New Year’s Day by prosperous Creole families prior to the Civil War. At the Gallier House, built in 1857 by one of New Orleans’ most prominent architects, the table shows preparations of holiday baskets for the poor. “Charity was a large part of mid-century social custom,” explains curator Carolyn Bercier.
Tradition is not always so ebullient. In fact some houses’ decorations are very subtle for very personal reasons: At the Emily Dickinson Museum’s Homestead, there are only greens and roses celebrating the poet’s birth (December 18, 1830). Jane Wald, executive director, explains that while the Dickinson family was prominent and in some ways a style leader (they were the first to build a Federal House in Amherst, and later built an Italianiate home), Emily’s parents never had a Christmas tree—a reminder of New England’s Puritan past, when the celebration of Christmas was viewed as pagan. Indeed, Christmas was a quandary for Emily: the poet later recalled that as a young girl in the 1830s she secretly “loved Santa Claus” more than “the Lord Jesus Christ.”
On the west coast, almost three-quarters of a century later, in San Diego’s Balboa Park George and Anna Marston kept their decorations low-key, but for a very different reason. “The family owned Marston’s Department store, and just like Macy’s they did over-the-top amazing displays in the store. At home, they took a little rest: their decorations were much more subtle and down home,” says Alana Coons. At the 1905 house—which is one of the top examples of the Arts and Crafts style and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for Architecture and Landscape Architecture—presents were wrapped in colorful tissue paper and sealed with sealing wax; to decorate the family collected all of the greenery from five acres of gardens. In recreating a 1905 Christmas Coons says the only problem was the tree itself: Originally, the evergreen would have been cut down in the canyon, and have been rather scraggly. “Believe it or not, there are no ‘Charlie Brown’ trees for sale now,” says Coons. The answer: a botanist bought a tree and trimmed it so that it looks less full.
Photo credits:
Victoria Mansion: All photos by James R. Salmon, courtesy Victoria Mansion
The Merchant’s House: All photos courtesy Merchant’s House
Taos Museums: Photo © Gak Stonn, courtesy Harwood Museum of Art
Hermann-Grima and Gallier Houses: Photos courtesy Herman-Grima/Gallier Historic Houses
Emily Dickinson Museum: All photos courtesy Emily Dickenson Museum
Marston House: All photos by Sandé Lollis, courtesy of Marston House Museum & Gardens/Save Our Heritage Organization
Victoria Mansion: All photos by James R. Salmon, courtesy Victoria Mansion
The Merchant’s House: All photos courtesy Merchant’s House
Taos Museums: Photo © Gak Stonn, courtesy Harwood Museum of Art
Hermann-Grima and Gallier Houses: Photos courtesy Herman-Grima/Gallier Historic Houses
Emily Dickinson Museum: All photos courtesy Emily Dickenson Museum
Marston House: All photos by Sandé Lollis, courtesy of Marston House Museum & Gardens/Save Our Heritage Organization
