Homes for the holidays: LFCS offering 21st annual holiday tour

Tourists on this year's Lutheran Family and Children's Services 21st annual home tour will see several homes dressed up for Christmas. Getting ideas for their own decorating and seeing the special collections at some of the homes are bonuses.

This year's tour includes a bed and breakfast, historic residences, Victorian and contemporary homes.

LFCS is a statewide social service organization with counseling, adoption, crisis pregnancy assistance, child-care and mentoring programs. The Cape Girardeau office serves 15 counties in Southeast Missouri. LFCS helps the community with programs like Women In Need Growing Stronger (WINGS) and Family Foundations, which helps single parents with international and domestic adoptions.

The home tour is one of the two main fundraisers for the year. The Hope Fore Families golf tournament in May is the other event.

"To add a little something special this year and to celebrate our 35th anniversary of the Cape Girardeau LFCS office there will be an open house at our new building," said Melody Anderson, LFCS development director.

ELIZABETH DODD ~ edodd@semissourian.comThere are six decorated homes in the 21st annual Holiday Home Tour one of the big fundraisers for Lutheran Family and Children Services.

She said there will be prizes and refreshments at the new building at 3178 Blattner Drive in Cape Girardeau.

But the tour of decorated homes is the real treat. For $20, tourists can visit six homes. Three of the six homes are within a mile of the new LFCS office.

"Funds raised go to provide any service offered here," Anderson said. Last year's goal of $25,000 was almost met, with a total of $23,000 raised. This year's goal is again $25,000."

Two of the homes on the tour have historical recognition -- one is a registered historic landmark and another was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

The home of Robert and Kaye Hamblin, at 313 Themis St., is known as the Harrison House. It was constructed in 1898 for the Cape Girardeau postmaster, Dr. Samuel Harris, who died before it was completed. The architect, J.P. Legg of St. Louis, designed Academic Hall and other prominent homes in Cape Girardeau.

From the breakfast room at the Hamblin home you can see the Mississippi River and the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. When the Hamblins bought the house in 2003 it was in desperate need of tender loving care.

"A lot of people have expressed an interest in seeing it," Kaye Hamblin said. "Especially since they remember when it was falling apart."

The 10-foot-tall Christmas tree at the Hamblins' home is set up in the foyer where the staircase bends. The oak railing, draped in garland, frames the tree.

A special Lilliput Lane collection of 15 tiny buildings show places in England the Hamblins have visited. They have Shakespeare's home, Anne Hathaway's cottage, Royal Albert Hall and Big Ben.

Kaye said she is proud to display her set of heirloom dishes, which belonged to her parents. The Hamblins have decorated their home with antiques that take visitors back in time for an old-fashioned Christmas.

"A lot of people have expressed an interest in the historical value," Kaye said. "We're probably not going to put out a lot of extra stuff."

If Christmas collections inspire you, be sure to see the DePeder home at 814 Pheasant Cove.

The collection of at least 150 nutcrackers, ranging from an inch to 3 feet tall, is a mystery to both Andy and Mary Ann DePeder. They don't know when or who started it, but it began on the fireplace mantel, spread to the hutch and now there are nutcracker's everywhere.

"We're a house full of collectors," said Mary Ann, who described herself as a Christmas crazy person. This year is the debut of their 9-foot-tall angel tree, one of the eight to 10 themed trees they decorate annually.

"I am blessed with a husband who does 75 percent of the work. I've got Christmas coming out the windows but I couldn't do all this without him because I'm disabled. It's one of the fun things we do together," she said.

The tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 6. Tickets are $25 the day of the tour. Tickets can be purchased at The Bank of Missouri at Cape Girardeau and Jackson; the LFCS office, Patrick's Furniture, 1140 N. Kingshighway, Southeast Missouri Hospital Gift Shop, Sunny Hill Garden Center, 206 N. Kingshighway, Wanda's Coiffures, 1405 Thomas. For more information, call the LFCS Cape Girardeau office at 334-5866.

cpagano@semissourian.com

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