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Garden Club Hosts Holiday Home Tour
By Sara Isaacs White
The Milford Times Thursday November 27, 1997
The second annual Christmas Home Tour will be heralding
in the season on Dec. 5 and 6. Five festively decked Milford area
homes will be showcasing the finest of what holiday decorating
can do to transform a house into a wonderland.
The Milford Garden Club is sponsoring this year's
event, which runs from 6 to 10 p.m. on both days, and member Beverly
Campbell is the chairperson. Her home on Collendale Drive will
be one of those featured.
Because Campbell and her family are French-Canadian,
she will be incorporating the family's heritage and Christmas
traditions in her decor.
"We celebrate on Christmas Eve with dancing,
singing and story-telling," she said. "It's a party
atmosphere."
Campbell will have a display of traditional French-Canadian
dishes, including Sugar Pie and Tortieres, a pork meat pie for
the visitors to feast their eyes on. A towering apple centerpiece
will be a focal point.
The unifying theme in her home will be natural and
rustic. She incorporates dried and adorned fruit, vegetables and
herbs. They not only look beautiful, but smell good, too.
"Breen's has been great-they're supplying the vegetables
and fruits for my displays," she said.
Small black pine trees, taken from their property,
will be decorated, as well as grapevine and evergreen garland
and topiaries.
"We don't have decorations like tinsel,"
said Campbell. "The French-Canadian people never had a lot
of money, so they used what they had."
A Garden Room in the family's home will showcase
Trisha Romance watercolors, a favorite Canadian artist who makes
her home at Niagara-on-the-Lake. Her works, depicting everyday
family life, grace the walls throughout the home. This room will
display a collection of topiaries in all shapes and sizes, and
other yuletide greenery.
Canadian pine antiques from Quebec are peppered
throughout the rooms, from the traditional to the unusual. A hat
rack made from a century old wooden turbine, and wooden stock
stretchers from the defunct Canadian Brampton Knitting Mills,
provide an authentic, rustic flair to the home.
Christmas wouldn't be the same without a tree, and
the Campbells will have three. The Great Room will provide the
home for an eleven foot tree, donated by Broadview Christmas Tree
Farm, decorated in a garden theme. A porcelain Nativity scene,
and a display of candles and garland on the mantle above the lit
fireplace breath the warmth of home into the room.
The view form this room to the deck will include
a special tree ornamented for the birds with shredded wheat, cranberries,
cherries and other treats.
"I love birds," explains Campbell. "There
will be lots of bird feeders inside and out."
A shining room of silver family heirlooms and auction
pieces will be glowing with more candlelight. A grapevine garland
will frame the entrance to the room.
"I'm keeping them all wrapped until the event
because they're all polished," said Campbell of the pieces.
"I want them to look perfect."
Mirroring the sparkling white lights that line the
path leading to the home will be the lights and garland along
the staircase banister to the second floor. More Trisha Romance
prints line the stairwell. At the top of the stairs will be the
children's tree decorated in gingerbread and reds.
Campbell's daughters, Aimee and Holly, will have
their "Christmas Lists" to Santa on their desks.
The guest bedroom features a beautiful heavy dry
sink. A "Baffin Boy" which is a hooked rug in the Canadian
tradition made by Beverly's mother adorns a wall.
"Each home will have a different theme,"
said Campbell. "There is a beautiful formal theme, and the
Edwards home features an outdoor gazebo, with hot cider."
Carol Kerr's home features a unique three-season
garden house with a fireplace.
Campbell urges visitors to start at the Kerr home
on Liberty in downtown Mildord or at her home in Commerce Township,
just south of Sleeth Road. From there they may continue to any
of the other houses, and maps will be provided with the tickets.
Tickets are $6 and are available at Read Between
The Lines, The Milford Times, or the Village Peddler, all are
on Main Street. They are also available at any of the homes. This
year, visitors will need to show their tickets at each home, not
just the brochure as they did last year.
There will be a raffle for floral centerpieces,
with each ticket costing $1. The centerpieces at the Campbells'
were donated by South Hill Florals and Gifts.
A hostess at each house will greet visitors at the
door, ask them to remove their shoes (booties will be available
or visitors may bring their won slippers), and brief them on the
walking plan of the house.
"We ask that they only visit each house once,
but we want them to take their time, relax and enjoy," said
Campbell. "We want people to take time from the holiday rush."
The Garden Club also requests that parents do not
bring children under the age of 10 with them in the interests
in avoiding accidents.
Proceeds from the ticket sales and raffles will
go to Horticultural Scholarships for area high schools and Community
Beautification projects in Milford.
The 105 members of the garden club took over the
event after the Playscape fundraisers began it last year. The
organization also donated proceeds from various functions to conservation
projects such as Keep Michigan Beautiful. These hard working members
also keep many areas around Milford brimming with flowers and
neatly landscaped, such as the Playscape structure and their recent
renovation of Memorial Park, which is located within Central Park.
The group will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary
in February and are calling all alumni to join them. The meeting
on the second Wednesday in February, 1998, is open to all former
members, and will be held at the Masonic Lodge in Milford.
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