CHRISTMAS PAST

For those who want to see an old-fashioned Christmas, circa 1900, two area historic homes are offering a glimpse of what holidays were like then.

Both the Glenn House in Cape Girardeau and the Oliver House in Jackson, which have each been restored to how they looked around 1900, are decorated for a Victorian Christmas and will be open for tours this weekend.

By the 1900s, people had decorated trees in their homes, Barbara Port, a member of the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau Inc., said as she and her husband, Bill, showed off Glenn House.

Glenn House has nine Christmas trees set up for the holiday tour. Of course, the Glenns would only have had one tree, Mrs. Port said. But the association wanted a tree in each room. Each tree is decorated with a different theme to show a different aspect of Victorian decorating.

The one tree the Glenns would have had was probably cedar, since that is what would have been available locally, Mrs. Port said. And a cedar tree has been set up in the family room, the room where the family would have gathered in the evenings for music, reading and games. The decorations here are typical of what children might have made: paper chains, paper ornaments and bows.

Much more formal is the parlor. "It would only have been used for weddings, funerals and when the minister came to visit," Mrs. Port said.

On a small tree in this room are ornaments that are German hand-blown glass globes. "You can tell they are hand-blown because they aren't perfectly round," Mrs. Port said.

Also on this tree are 1900-era molded glass ornaments in the shapes of pine cones, Santa faces, baskets of fruit and bells.

The tree in the dining room is decorated with real candles, though they won't be lit and are supplemented with white lights.

"Back in 1900, they would only light the candles on a tree for about 15 minutes on Christmas, and because of the danger of fire, they'd have a bucket of water nearby," Port said.

The dining table is set with French Haviland gold band china on a bright red tablecloth. Ribbons are hung from the chandelier and anchored with a small, wrapped box at each place setting.

The dining room is also decorated with fruit, both fresh and dried, since the Victorians often used such natural products in decorating, Mrs. Port said.

The parlor and family and dining rooms are the rooms the Glenns would have used for entertaining, so they are more ornate than the upstairs rooms, which are more ornate than the plain fixtures in the kitchen and servants' quarters.

However, a goose feather tree on the upstairs landing is very striking. The white feathers are twisted in wire to form the shape of a pine tree, which Port said was made in the 1920s. It is decorated with red roses, poinsettias, red ornaments and white lights.

Upstairs, trees have an angel theme in the master bedroom, a nautical tree in the Mississippi room and painted wooden ornaments in the shapes of soldiers, angels, wreaths and gingerbread men in the children's room.

Such stories also abound on tours of the Oliver House, a pre-Civil War brick Federal-style home that has been restored and furnished by the Jackson Heritage Association to represent the late Victorian era when the family of state Sen. Robert Burett Oliver and Marie Watkins Oliver lived in the home.

Mrs. Oliver designed and made the first official flag of Missouri, said Bernard Schaper, an association member, as he led a tour for a group from the Hoover Center on Friday.

Here, as in the Glenn House, there is both a parlor for formal entertaining and a family room, at Oliver House called a sitting room, where family members spent much of their time.

The parlor is decorated with greenery, pine cones, strands of gold beads and gold organdy ribbon on the mantle, table and an 1815 piano, which is the second oldest piece in the house, Schaper said.

The one tree in the Oliver House is a cedar tree in the sitting room. Draped with plaid ribbon, the tree is also decorated with pine cones, large magenta, pink, white, gold and silver glass balls, dried plants, beaded ornaments and strands of magenta and gold beads.

TOUR INFORMATION

Tours of Glenn House will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. today, Sunday and Dec. 26. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for children. The house is at 325 S. Spanish.

Tours of Oliver House will be held from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. A collection of miniature tractors and other farm equipment will be on display. Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children. The house is at 224 E. Adams in Jackson.