Holiday Mansion Tour Gives a Nod to the Victorian Era

The first snowfall of the season may have been a burden to some. But not to those enjoying the holiday mansion tours at on Sunday.

The freshly fallen snow simply added to the beauty of the old located in the heart of the settlement.

Extensive research was done to get an idea of how a home in the Victorian era would have been decorated during the season, tour guides said. Many of the ideas for the museum, which was once a family home, were gathered from a 1903 edition of Ladies Home Journal, including those for its Christmas tree and dining room table settings.

A simple tree decorated with icicle ornaments stood in the family parlor and fireplace mantels were adorned with evergreen boughs and berries.

" was just becoming a commercial experience at this time (around the turn of the century), it wasn't celebrated like it is today," said Cindy Lackore, a museum staff member in the home who educates guests on the walk-through tours. "The Martins were Scottish, so much of the decorating is from their heritage, although the Scottish didn't really celebrate Christmas. They tended to celebrate New Year's Eve."

At the time, wrapping paper and Christmas cards were fairly new so many gifts would have been wrapped in brown paper, Lackore said. Presents also may have been attached to fishnets that hung on the walls, as was the case near the mansion's beautiful wooden staircase. Family members often spruced up their homes by hanging cards, small gifts or evergreen boughs in the nets.

"Gifts that were exchanged were usually homemade gifts or some small item," Lackore said. "In the 1890s, gifts that were handmade were much more valuable in the eyes of a friend."

The decorated icicle tree stood near a window in the front family parlor, while the table in the dining room is beautifully adorned with the family's best holly and berry-themed plates. Crackers or party poppers—they were very popular at the time—were beside every plate waiting for someone to pull them to reveal the small "gift" inside.

On the buffet in the dining room, the family's holiday menu was on display. Lackore said the menu chosen was taken from the White House cookbook of that day. The feast included oysters on the half shell, clear soup with lemons, roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry and apple sauces, creamed peas and carrots, browned potatoes, a Christmas salad, brown bread and pecan and pumpkin pies.

The kitchen was not decorated at all, but items representing the Martin's Scottish heritage were set on the cutting block. A black bun, which is similar to fruit bread, athol brose, a honey concoction with whiskey, and clootie dumplings, a type of plum pudding, waited to be served.

"The Scottish believed that at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve a tall, dark, handsome stranger would cross your threshold with a handsel," Lackore said.  "This meant that he was wishing you well. The items he brought represented good things to come."

A coal gift meant the recipient would have fire, a cake signified bountifulness and whiskey, luxury, she said.

"He would say, 'Lang may yer lum reek,' which meant 'long may your chimney smoke,'" Lackore said.

In another part of the home, George Martin's office, a miniature Christmas tree made of dried goose feathers sat on the desk. The branches on the tree were bare and spread widely apart to allow for candles. A few Christmas cards were also scattered on the desk.

"Whether people gave Christmas cards or not depended on their economic level," said Mary Anne Obal, museum educator. "... Cards first showed up in England before the Civil War, but they didn't come here right away."

Angels were also a popular motif during the Victorian era, Obal said.

"Women would cut pictures from magazines and place them on card stock and edge it with gold," she said.  "If they received cards, they would save them and use them as ornaments to decorate their tree the following years."

Obal said that although the museum is not sure how the Martin family decorated the home, nothing was placed in the home that might not have been used there during that time.

Holiday tours of the Victorian-era home are being held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays, Dec. 11 and 18, and Sundays, Dec. 12 and 19.  Tickets are $8 per person and may be purchased at the mansion.