This is a p.s. to my previous post.
On Dec. 4, Galveston’s East End Historical District Association will have its 20th annual “A Victorian Christmas” Homes Tour featuring five East End homes decorated for the Christmas season from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Dec. 4.
Wish I could be there myself.
Here’s the article from The Daily News out of Galveston County.
There are a lot of articles coming out these days announcing holiday home tours. It’s interesting how many of the homes in these tours are Victorian. But then, as yesterday’s post discusses, the Victorian era taught us how to celebrate Christmas, right down to the Christmas tree.
Here’s one article from the York News-Times about a woman in York, Nebraska named Vina Mody, who for 20 years has been decorating her Victorian mansion for the annual Holiday Tour of Homes. She sets up over 100 Christmas trees in her home! It takes her a month to get ready for the tour and another month to break it all back down. She says this will be her last year though. She can’t handle it anymore. So if you’re in the York area this coming Sunday, you’ll want to catch Vina’s final display.
Here’s another article, this one from the Tyler Paper in Tyler, Texas. This weekend’s tour in Tyler features a number of homes, one of which is an 1891 Victorian known as “The Judge Parker Home,” owned by David and Alva Kesler. If you only have a couple minutes, scroll down to the description of this home. It tells us that the Keslers have painstakingly worked to restore the house to its “Victorian splendor.” Indeed. Wait until you read this.
Just a taste here. The “judge’s den” has been converted into the master bedroom, complete with a four poster bed in brown silk, sitting in the center of the room on an antique rug. In the corner is a mahogany dresser with cheval mirror, circa 1890.
The article takes you room by room, and although there are no photos, the writing is good enough to allow you to visualize it yourself.
Maybe won’t be able to make it to York, NE or Tyler, TX this weekend. But is there a holiday tour of Victorian homes in your area? You never know. It could be your opportunity to see some splendid pieces of antique Victorian furniture while you’re getting into the Christmas spirit.
I almost missed this article out of London from the Kilgore News Herald. It talks about the Christmas traditions that we owe to the Victorian era, especially the meal. And it discusses the influence of Charles Dickens’ description of Christmas at the Cratchit’s, the family of Tiny Tim, in A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol was published on December 19, 1843. Within a week 6,000 copies were sold!
Dickens, the article says, was the first to paint this “portrait of celebration,” complete with a stuffed goose, mashed potatoes, gravy, applesauce, and plum pudding. Apparently, in the early 19th century, Christmas was not a cause for great celebration; but Dickens’ picture of “everyone sitting around the table with a great big goose” helped to change all that.
It’s not just the feast, either, that we get from the Victorians. The Christmas tree itself, although already a long established tradition in Germany, became widely popular in England only after a print was published showing Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and the children all gathered around one.
There’s so much more to antique Victorian furniture than cabriole legs. Perhaps that Victorian table you’re thinking of buying offered up numerous Christmas meals for a happy Victorian family, who feasted under the intoxicating influence of Dickens. You may not know it, but those ghosts of past Christmases are still sitting there.
There is an article today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a wonderful Victorian farmhouse located in Kohlsville, WI. A woman named Cindy Livingston Tobin and her husband purchased the home back in 1989.
Mrs. Tobin seems to have had Victorian tastes in her blood, or perhaps in this day we should say in her genetic makeup. When she was 12 years old, her parents allowed her to decorate her room in the style of her choosing. Her choice was Victorian. This was a sophisticated choice for a girl of that age living in the late sixties, especially given that her parents remained firm about putting shag carpet in the room!
Today the Tobin’s farmhouse is thoroughly decorated with antique Victorian furniture and other Victorian decor. In fact, the television is one of the only modern pieces to be found in the house.
The Tobins put an enormous amount of effort into decorating the home for the Christmas season. They place a Christmas tree in every room. They hang wreaths and set up numerous statuettes of Santa. Mrs. Tobin explains that the Victorian era popularized the Christmas tree and other decorations.
The article provides a nice little picture gallery of the home with enlargeable photos. I do wish that they would have asked Mrs. Tobin to tell us about the antique Victorian furniture she chose for the home. I suspect she could share quite a bit of insight. You’ll see some of her Victorian furniture in the photos.
Click here to read about this delightful Victorian farmhouse.