Holiday Home Tour Set for Nov. 15

The Friends of the Rochester Hills Public Library’s 2015 Holiday Home Tour is set for Sunday, November 15.

The Holiday Home Tour features four area homes and the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm. (The latter is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.) All are highly and uniquely decorated for the upcoming festive season. Tour participants will see a wide-array of décor styles and several one-of-a-kind displays put together by the site hosts. All of them have volunteered to open their homes (and in the instance of the Museum, opening for a rare Sunday event) to let others peek at what usually only close friends and family see. It’s all to help raise funds for the Friends, the Rochester Hills Public Library’s volunteer arm. (Details on the homes are attached to this release.)

Van Hoosen Farmhouse

Van Hoosen Farmhouse

Friends President Ron Meegan said “We are very grateful to the homeowners and our friends at the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm who offered to get an early start on their holiday decorating to help the Rochester Hills Public Library. Many local businesses and individuals have donated money to the Holiday Home Tour to help underwrite the cost of the event. The tour presents some truly singular design options and ideas and shouldn’t be missed by anyone who enjoys this time of the year. This has become a signature annual event for the area and we hope everyone will make room on their schedules to take in these seasonally decorated residences.”

Participating has become kind of contagious. Marcia and Al Decker, whose home was a popular stop on the 2014 tour, convinced a nearby homeowner to offer a display this year, as did another of last year’s participants. And the owners of another of this year’s display homes are curtailing their usual Halloween decorations to get going on their Holiday Home displays early.

The Home Tour stops will be open from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 15. Docents will be at each location to guide visitors through and answer questions. Tickets are $25 per person.

They are available at:

  • The Friends Store inside the Rochester Hills Library lobby, 500 Olde Town, Rochester and at http://www.rhpl.org/friends-of-rhpl/special-events. Payment is via Pay Pal or credit card.
  • Lytle Drugs, 340 S. Main, Rochester.
  • Sharon’s Hallmark, 115 S. Livernois and 3038 Walton Blvd., Rochester Hills,
  • Dillman and Upton, 607 Woodward, Rochester.
  • Hepplewhite’s Furniture, at 322 S. Main Street

 

THE HOLIDAY HOME TOUR HOMES AT A GLANCE

THE MUSEUM AT VAN HOOSEN FARM

VAN HOOSEN FARMHOUSE

One of the area’s jewels, the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm, is doing a rare Sunday opening for the Holiday Home Tour and is also host to the event’s Holiday Gift Boutique. Three of the buildings on the farm—the Farmhouse, the Dairy Barn and the Red House—will be available to tour participants. And the complex’s annual decoration set-up is getting done earlier than usual, with a professional volunteer interior designer and team augmenting the 1840s setting. Things to look for? There’s plenty to take in—definitely schedule more time in your tour day for this stop. You’ll want to revel in the large Christmas tree in the library of the Farmhouse and a special exhibit of hand-crafted Santas created by the mother of museum staffer, Michelle Dunham.

Holiday Home Tour

Holiday Home Tour

HOUSE 1

100 Nativity crèche sets. 14 Christmas trees (7 full-size). 40-some nutcrackers. While the numbers help portray the scale of this 2006-built 3,250-square-foot home’s Yuletide display, there’s plenty of quality to match the quantity. And to show their commitment, the owners are giving up their Halloween party—they’re serious Jack-o-Lantern fanciers, too—to get totally ready for Holiday Home Tour visitors! Every November, this home changes out its American traditional mode of décor for the full Yule treatment. The trees and its ornaments are themed—look for a bird tree, a music tree, a kitchen tree (think chef wear and utensils as ornaments), the 12-foot main tree done in white and silver, a Texas tree reflecting one of the owner’s time in the Lone Star state, and more. The Nativity sets come from Colombia, Germany, and Peru and include a quaint 1932 cardboard set they salvaged from a garage sale in fine shape. Leave plenty of time for this tour stop—there’s plenty to grab your eyes wherever you turn your head. Including two pairs of the owner’s baby shoes-turned-ornament on one tree.

Holiday Home Tour

Holiday Home Tour

HOUSE 2

Looking for a big dose of Christmas wonder? This is it! Enter this 5,000-square-foot, built-in-1999 colonial in Rochester Hills and you’ll take a deep dive into the spirit, sights, ornaments and sounds of the season. A large festively decorated tree and baby grand piano will greet you as you enter through the front door. Next to the tree is a large Dickens Village/Department 57 collection that’s an irresistible attention grabber. But that’s just for openers. Your ramble through the three-floor display includes a beautiful olivewood Nativity scene from Israel and a small brass Nativity set from India. In the dining room, you’ll enjoy an eye-catching dining table set with Yule china. More trees and grand decorations are all coming from the owners’ decoration storage room to the home’s other living area for your enjoyment. And don’t miss the Mister of the House’s holiday garage display on your way out. Your hosts are a couple who were convinced by one of last year’s tour home owners to take part this year. Nice!

Holiday Home Tour

Holiday Home Tour

HOUSE 3

A warm Witamy—that’s Polish for “Welcome”—is what you’ll figuratively hear when you enter this Craftsman-style, spacious ranch home built in 2012. Visitors will get a virtual trip to Poland as the host family displays trees with glass-blown ornaments from the old country and offers a dining room table set for the traditional Christmas Eve family meal, the Wigilia supper, with dried fruits and the Oplatek wafers that are broken and exchanged at the table. Plenty of other European Yule decorations can be seen throughout the home. By the time your tour is complete, you’ll want to say a warm “Dziekuje”—thank you—for this special glimpse at an Eastern European Christmas celebration.

Holiday Home Tour

Holiday Home Tour

HOUSE 4

Ever want to get a glimpse of another family’s Christmas celebration without having to give up your own? This stop at a spacious Shelby Township condo is your golden opportunity. Your hosts make Christmas a true family homecoming event and you’ll be able to absorb all the warmth only her relatives and friends normally get to see. This home is transformed from its Pottery Barn everyday-styling to a Christmas wonderland. Be sure to marvel at the peacock-themed main tree in the great room. And how’s this for what-goes-around-comes-around? The owner of the home was inspired to make her abode available for the Holiday Home Tour as a coda to her childhood appearance on the Elks Club float at the Rochester Christmas Parade some 50 years ago.

In addition to the Sunday tour, there are two other related events. Hepplewhite’s Furniture will host a preview party on Wednesday, November 11 from 6-8 p.m. at the store (address in the ticket seller’s list above). The hosts of this year’s stops are the guests of honor and will talk about what you’ll see four days later amid entertainment, wine, champagne and appetizers. Tickets for this event are $25 and are limited so order early for this holiday season kickoff. Tickets are available at the same places tour tickets (listed above) are sold.

And during the Sunday tour, the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm will host a Holiday Boutique. Among the offerings to help check off your Yule gift lists: Toffee, festive socks, warm scarves, plenty of holiday decorations and many more unique items. This is part of the Home Tour and is included in the main ticket price.

Photos Courtesy of Friends of the Rochester Hills Public Library

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