Deck the historic halls

Homes open doors to visitors for Christmas season

Friday, Dec. 4, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo File photos Georgina Brinkman, a docent at the Dr. Samuel A. Brown House and Museum gave tours of the home, decorated for the holidays, in 2008. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Civil War re-enactor Tom Pruitt walks McCloud in front of the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House and Museum during last year's open house. The home will be open for tours Dec. 5 and 6.   Follow the lights Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Society will hold its eighth annual candlelight Victorian Christmas 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Dec. 5-6. The home will be furnished in Victorian-era decorations. Refreshments, musical entertainment and Civil War Santa and Mrs. Claus. Admission is $7 for adults, $2 for children and members free. The museum is at 3725 Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Road, Waldorf. Call 301-274-9358. Thomas Stone Historic Site will hold a candlelight tour of Haberdeventure 4-7 p.m. Dec. 12. Dress accordingly for the weather. The site is at 6655 Rose Hill Road, Port Tobacco. Call 301-392-1776 or go to www.nps.gov/thst. Mount Aventine Friends of Chapman State Park will hold an Antebellum Christmas at Mount Aventine 1-4 p.m. Dec. 13, at the home, 3425 Ferry Place, Indian Head. The handbell choir of Good Samaritan Presbyterian Church, Waldorf, directed by Mark Howell, will play seasonal music at 1:30 p.m. The event is free. Call 301-753-6754 or go to www.chapmanforest.org. Historic Smallwood Retreat House will hold a Colonial Christmas 1-7 p.m. Dec. 13 at the home in General Smallwood State Park in Marbury. Cider, sweets, candlemaking and tours by costumed docents. Donations accepted. Call 301-743-7613 or 301-743-3048 or e-mail ngill1007@comcast.net. Trolley tours stop at Habredeventure on Dec. 12 and Smallwood Retreat House on Dec. 13 Tickets are $30 per person and reservations are required. Trips start and end at the Charles County government building, 200 Baltimore St., La Plata. For more information, call 301-885-1342.

These days, Christmas decorations are inflatable, some literally have the bells and whistles, rapping Santa figurines burst into action at the press of a button and LED lights brighten boughs.

But it's not all superficial or artificial — the holidays are essentially about what they've always been about — spending time with family, slowing down the pace, preparing special recipes that only seem to be on the table during this time of year.

The historic homes and sites around the county are festooning mantles with greenery and offering visitors a glimpse of Christmases past with tours and events.

The Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House and Museum will host its eighth annual Victorian Christmas Dec. 5 and 6.

Docents will give tours of the home — while Civil War re-enactors make camp outside and Robert W. Parker – otherwise known as Civil War Santa — display era-appropriate toys.

In the past, the decorators at the historic home employed likely the same methods the Mudd family would have at the holiday when it came to sprucing up the farmhouse.

"They would have used any greenery they could find around here," docent Georgina Brinkman said in 2002 when the event was just in its second year. "Ivy, mistletoe, magnolia leaves."

The Mudd family would have a Christmas tree, made popular by Queen Victoria around the 1840s.

The Chapman family, who lived in Indian Head at Mount Aventine, would have had one too.

Mount Aventine Friends of Chapman State Park will hold its fourth annual Antebellum Christmas, decorating the historic home in period decorations, including a tree dotted with homemade ornaments.

"It was just the beginning of Christmas trees in this country," said Carol Ghebelian, the open house coordinator for the Friends of Chapman State Park. "There are no lights [on the tree] … it was decorated with simple things … we'll be using some popcorn, they did have candy canes so we'll have them. We try to be faithful to the period."

Finding ideas on the Internet, volunteers fashion ornaments out of paper, much like the Chapman family children might have.

The organizers will also be giving visitors who stop by during the open house Dec. 13 a taste of Christmas, by using recipes from the era represented.

"Sugar cookies, gingerbread," Ghebelian said.

Vintage doll displays will take up an area under the tree, representing the "many, many children" who called the house "home." Not that the young ones reaped the bounty modern children do.

"Kids wouldn't get a lot," Ghebelian explained. "There were homemade dolls and wooden toys."

At the Thomas Stone Historic Site in Port Tobacco, not only will visitors be celebrating the season, but the birth of a nation as well.

Scott Hill, supervisory park ranger at the site, said the candlelight tours on Dec. 12 will focus on the year 1783 — the year the American Revolution came to an end.

"They would be quite thrilled with the whole situation," Hill said of the family, whose patriarch had endured the previous eight years fighting for independence. "The struggle of the last eight years had been overcome and America could reach her true spot in the world."

Like the other historic homes in the area — including the Smallwood Retreat house which will hold a Colonial Christmas on Dec. 13 — the Stone's home, Haberdeventure, would be decorated with greens found around the plantation and, being that they were part of the upper class, the family would be lucky enough to use fruits, such as apples and oranges, and flowers in their décor.

"This would be a time that they would splurge," said Hill, who has worked at the site for eight years. "But the real focus would be gathering together and remembering the reason for season. They would be celebrating the birth of Christ."

During the tours, a couple of bonfires will roar and a candlemaking demonstration will be held. Costumed docents will lead tours and first-person interpreters will tell the family's story.

"This is a way to step back in time," Hill said. "People will not only be celebrating Christmas but the creation of our new nation."

staylor@somdnews.com