Folks will be coming from far and wide to enjoy the holiday spirit at the fifth annual Homes for the Holidays tour.
The Queen’s Park Healthcare Volunteer Society is giving people a chance to tour six heritage homes in the Queen’s Park and Brow of the Hill neighbourhoods that have been beautifully decorated for the holidays. The tour is on Sunday, Dec. 3 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
“People love it,” said Colleen McDonald, vice-chair of Queen’s Park Healthcare Volunteer Society’s board of directors. “There’s a woman who comes from Portland. People come from Seattle. There’s a woman who comes from Edmonton. I even got an email from a woman wanting to know when the tour was so that she could book her holidays.”
With only 350 tickets available, the tour usually sells out as fans of heritage and Christmas want to soak up the holiday atmosphere in beautiful heritage homes.
“I think it’s just the fact that it sort of kicks off the Christmas season because it’s the first Sunday of December. It’s the magic of these beautiful homes decorated inside and out,” McDonald said. “They get ideas for decorating. So many of these houses, we walk by them and we just want to get inside and see what they look like.”
This year’s tour includes homes that have never been included on heritage tours in the city, as well as some old favourites that are now being decked out in their holiday finery. The Homes for the Holidays tour includes stops at the Captain W.H. Philpott House (1905), the Robert Buckland House (1891), E-Dee-Nie – the Edmund J. Boughen House (1911), the Herbert Davidson House (1910) and the William Mercer House (1901).
A sixth stop on the tour, the 1892 Hugh Galbraith House, is where folks can enjoy a glass of wine and shortbread, and shop for items from the Quintessential gift shop in Queen’s Park Care Centre. Christmas decorations and home décor, accessories such as capes, purses and scarves, fancy soaps and bath salts, stuffed animals and colouring books are among the items being sold at the Galbraith House.
“We have lots of fun things for stocking stuffers,” McDonald said. “One I especially love is the spiky, rubber snowman head that lights up when you bounce him on the ground.”
A pianist will be playing at one house on the tour, while harpists will be performing at another home.
The Queen’s Park Healthcare Volunteer Society is raising funds for programs and events for people in care and attending day programs at Queen’s Park Health Care Centre. Funds go to a variety of initiatives at the facility, including new tablecloths for special events and Wi-Fi.
“We cover the cost of concerts in care, which is a weekly event at the hospital. That is where professional musicians come in and entertain,” McDonald said. “We provide funds for Christmas gifts so nobody goes without a gift at Christmas time.”
Tickets are $30 and available online at www.qphvs.org. You can also purchase tickets at Champagne Taste and Home Décor (1101 Royal Ave.), Benjamin Moore Royal City Colours (700 12th St.) and GardenWorks at Mandeville (4746 Marine Dr., Burnaby).
