In Victorian Style: Guild adds holiday touches to Wright Mansion

By JEANEATTE RICKER

Gazette cor­re­spon­dent

Those who are fas­ci­nated by the roman­ti­cized old-fashioned Vic­to­rian Christ­mas can step back in time to revel in the 19th cen­tury Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tions cur­rently in the Wright Man­sion at Lyme His­tor­i­cal Village.

The beauty of the Vic­to­rian Christ­mas can be viewed by the pub­lic dur­ing the annual Can­dle­light Lantern Tours held in the vil­lage from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tues­day and Wednes­day, Dec. 27 and Dec. 28. Admis­sion is $5 for adults; $3 for chil­dren ages six to 12 and free to chil­dren ages five and younger.

“The Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tions are as cor­rect as we can do as Vic­to­ri­ans would have done,” said Car­olyn Huff­man, Elmore, Vic­to­rian Guild coor­di­na­tor. She com­mented that in those days peo­ple dec­o­rated more than the aver­age per­son would have done now.

Guild mem­bers will be dressed as Vic­to­rian guides, and as one tours the home, Christ­mas tra­di­tions from Vic­to­rian times and around the world will be learned.

This is the 11th year that the Vic­to­rian Guild has dec­o­rated the man­sion, said Huff­man. Pre­vi­ously mem­bers had dec­o­rated the Ruther­ford B. Hayes Home at Spiegel Grove in Fre­mont. The dec­o­ra­tions are all-hand made by guild mem­bers, stored and re-used each year in dif­fer­ent arrangements.

Christ­mas dec­o­rat­ing is com­pleted for the Vic­to­rian Din­ner hosted there in early Decem­ber by the Lyme Vil­lage Asso­ci­a­tion, which is ded­i­cated to pre­serv­ing local history.

The pur­pose of the Vic­to­rian Guild is for edu­ca­tion about Vic­to­rian times, but the pas­sion for their cre­ativ­ity is obvi­ous every­where. “We kind of go as we dec­o­rate,” said Jan Jor­dan, Belle­vue, who has been a Vic­to­rian Guild mem­ber for many years.

A dif­fer­ent theme is used in each area every year, which keeps it inter­est­ing for mem­bers. The library is dec­o­rated in a patri­otic theme. The West par­lor has a wed­ding theme. “Christ­mas time was a pop­u­lar time to have wed­dings when all the fam­ily was together,” said Huff­man. Hand-blown glass orna­ments are on the tree there for the first time. This type of orna­ment was first imported from Ger­many in the mid-1880’s, Huff­man said.

The East par­lor is dec­o­rated with white glit­ter­ing, hand­made orna­ments where a win­ter gar­den sur­rounds the fairy tree. The Vic­to­rian peo­ple were really enthralled with the super-natural, fairies, sprites, gob­lins,” accord­ing to Huff­man. “It was a form of enter­tain­ment to go to your friends’ homes to see their win­ter gar­den,” she said. Huff­man explained about the multi-levels of minia­ture gar­dens sur­round­ing the Christ­mas tree dec­o­rated in white: papier mache or beaded ici­cles; tiny cro­cheted bas­kets, wax flow­ers, paper folded snowflakes or pipe cleaner bas­kets dipped in alum and water, which cre­ates sparkle as it dries.

All were made by the Vic­to­rian Guild dur­ing their weekly meet­ings at the man­sion where inspi­ra­tion and cre­ativ­ity flow together. “I really have learned a lot,” said Linda Kerr, Belle­vue. Donna Warner, Milan, is a newer mem­ber, after being a long-time volunteer.

The Vic­to­rian fire extin­guisher, a mop in a bucket of water, is placed beside the tree to put out any fires started by the burn­ing can­dles on the tree.

All rooms, upstairs and down are beau­ti­fully dec­o­rated, even the upstairs sit­ting room in the wide hall­way which was used as a recep­tion area for close friends. It fea­tures life sized man­nequins dressed in period cloth­ing and a swag of Ohio buck­eyes. The Vic­to­ri­ans loved using nat­ural materials.

Research and edu­ca­tion comes from many venues. Antique mag­a­zines pop­u­lar in Vic­to­rian Times, Godeys Ladies Book, Peterson’s Mag­a­zine and St. Nicholas Mag­a­zine are good resource material.

The guild mem­bers work hard and enjoy it, but are seek­ing new vol­un­teers to join their group. “There is no charge to belong and there is a lot of com­radery between us,” said Huffman.

Posted by Becky Brooks on Dec 28 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.