Christmas Home Tour

A few weeks ago some friends of ours mentioned they were going to Waxahachie for the Candlelight Christmas Home Tour. I thought to myself that that would be a fun outing to take my mother in law on for her birthday. No, it's not something that I can wrap in a box, it's not a gift card that requires no thought. It's an experience. Sure enough they liked the idea and we planned to start the day with lunch and then a short road trip. My assumption of these Christmas Home Tours was that a florist or interior decorator came into each home and decorated and put their cards everywhere to take the credit, and the money we paid to visit each home would go to some charity.

We started off the tour by visiting the DeMont/Molitor Home. It's a beautiful home overlooking Lake Waxahachie. It's a massive 5837 square feet. The pool in the backyard was really a lazy river. Let's just put it this way, the outside didn't disappoint but the inside sure did. I was sort of distracted by all of the contemporary furniture and art work from the 80's. Contemporary makes me break out into hives.

DeMont/Molitor Home

The next house on the list was the Patrick Home. This home was built in 1899 and has stayed in the Patrick family ever since. It's a beautiful three story Queen Ann style home. It had a wrap around porch that I wanted to rip off and bring home with me. In the front parlor they had portraits of the original builders. My oldest said it reminded her of the portraits in the movies where the eyes follow you around the room. One of the other people taking the tour asked the twenty something year old granddaughter if she was in line to get the home. She told her, "I'm not sure I want it because there's so much that needs modernizing". I have to admit I was a little paranoid going up the stairs in this home. They were crooked and leaning. A lot. The Christmas decorations were still leaving a little to be desired and I was wondering if we had wasted our time and money. 

Patrick Home

So, we headed to the third home, the Robinson home. The Robinson home was a traditional brick home on a sweet piece of property. It's 3900 square feet of domestic heaven. From the butler's pantry to the cubbies in the mud room, perfect. From the hardwood floors to the brick and stone archways in the kitchen, perfect. It was decked out in Christmas everywhere. It wasn't ostentatious, it was first class the whole way. By far, this was my favorite of the day. 

Robinson Home

Then, last but not least, the Reisner home. This home for me was my second favorite. It was a ranch style home, built by the Gibson family. In each room they had different nativities from all around the world. The homeowners made this one for the kids. There was a certain number of the same nativities they had to find throughout the house and that made it fun for the kids.  

Reisner Home

It chalked up to a fun day trip. Seeing other peoples homes and how they decorate for Christmas. Some of those ideas were even worth stealing!!!