The holiday season is that time of year when we dip into our pasts and retrieve cherished traditions to share with our children and friends.
For many towns throughout the northwest suburbs, that past stretches to the 1800s when the area`s first families settled here. Those early families celebrated Christmas much as we do today. It was a time to step back from the daily business of building houses and towns and futures, and to wrap themselves and their homes in the warmth and wonder of the season and look to the promise of the new year ahead.
As we close the pages on 1992, volunteers at area historical societies who work throughout the year to preserve the collective histories of the northwest suburbs have once again recreated the magic of Christmases past in their museums. Many have held special open houses, teas and historical presentations early in the month to inaugurate the displays. All of them, though, leave the holiday decorations and spirit in place throughout the season.
From the simplicity of a rural schoolhouse to the ornateness of a Queen Anne home, historical society volunteers present us with a smorgasbord of Christmas celebrations for sampling the past and savoring the yuletide spirit. Here is a look at just some of the places where one can step back in history this holiday season.
– The Historical Society of Arlington Heights celebrated Christmas through the eyes of a child with a two-day festival that featured displays of old-time toys and carriage rides as well as cookie decorating and crafts for kids. Volunteers dressed in period costumes and assumed the identities of those who once lived in the various homes owned by the museum, which included a log cabin, a Victorian home, a coach house and a prairie-style home.
Each of those homes was decorated in the style of its time period. The Victorian house, for example, was arrayed with swags of greenery, ribbons and wreaths, a look that`s typical of the period`s ornateness. In contrast, the prairie-style home features a more streamlined look, known also known as the craftsman style, which was popular after the cluttered Victorian era of the late 1800s. The two homes also chronicle a shift in how people lived.
”The Victorian home had a parlor which was used just for special occasions and a sitting room like our family room where the tree usually was,” said Kim Griffith, curator of the museum. ”The early 1900s saw the disappearance of the parlor and in its place was one larger living room, so you not only see a difference in how the greens were placed, but you also see a difference in the concept of how houses were built in the two eras.”
The Historical Society of Arlington Heights, 110 W. Fremont St., Arlington Heights. Open Saturday and Sunday for tours at 2 and 3 p.m. Admission is $1 adults and 50 cents for children under 14. For more information, call 708-255-1225. The holiday decorations will be on display through Dec. 31.
– The Barrington Area Historical Society began the holiday celebration with its winter fundraising dinner-dance, Winterscapes, earlier this month.
”We tried to be a little on the historical side this year with Winterscapes,” said Pam Fuller, a Historical Society volunteer who chaired the event.
To carry out the event`s colonial theme, volunteers dressed as frontiersmen and welcomed guests with musket shots. Guests were entertained with old-fashioned instruments, including the dulcimer.
Fuller said each dinner table was named for a founding family from the Barrington area, and costumed volunteers visited the tables and related anecdotes from the past.
The Historical Society museum, located in a restored Victorian home in Barrington, was decked out by volunteers in period style. In fact, visitors can travel through time at the museum because each of its three downstairs rooms-the parlor, sitting room and kitchen-serve as exhibits to represent the three families who lived there.
Michael Harkin, director of the museum, said two Christmas open houses sponsored by the Historical Society featured volunteers, dressed in period costumes dating from the 1880s up until 1920s, who gave a living history account of each period.
”This was a real special occasion for us because it focused on living history, which is really what our mission is all about,” Harkin said. ”The house really comes alive, and people can find out about Barrington`s history and what went on during Christmases past from the three families who lived there.”
The Barrington Area Historical Society, 212 W. Main St., Barrington. Visitors can view the decorations on Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and on Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. For more information, call 708-381-1730. The decorations will be on display through Dec. 31.
– The Des Plaines Historical Society`s holiday celebration has taken on a new face this year. Whereas in past years volunteers held a Victorian Christmas, this year they planned ”The Holiday Gala,” an open house that featured chamber music, a dessert table and Father Christmas.
Volunteers decked the nine rooms of its 1906 Queen Anne style home with greens but in a style that is more restrained than decorations of year`s past, according to Rita O`Malley of the society.
”We did a lot of research on how homes would be decorated at the turn-of-the-century and found they were much more austere than before,”
O`Malley said. ”Where in past years we`ve had a lot of Christmas trees all over the house, this year we didn`t do that much.”
The Des Plaines Historical Society, 789 Pearson St., Des Plaines. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sunday 1-4 p.m. For more information, call 708-391-5399. The decorations will be on display through Dec. 31.
– The Clayson House, which houses the Palatine Historical Society, is featuring a very Victorian but very white Christmas.
”If you`re into Victorian, this is the place to come,” said Marilyn Pedersen, spokeswoman for the historical society. ”But just to be different we`ve done the whole tree in white with white lace and white roses. We`re trying to do as many white things as we can. Even our mannequins will be dressed in white.”
The Palatine Historical Society, 224 E. Palatine Rd., Palatine. Hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, and 1:30-4:30 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call 708-991-6460. Decorations will be on display until Jan. 10. The Dietrich Friedrichs House Museum, a 13-room structure recently opened by the Mt. Prospect Historical Society, is enjoying its first Christmas, with its first floor decked in holiday finery from 1917, the year the village was incorporated.
A Christmas housewalk was part of the holiday festivities at this museum, which was reborn after five years of work by area volunteers, according to Michelle Oberly, museum director.
The Christmas tree is adorned with strings of popcorn and candles, while the kitchen appears to be in the midst of holiday dinner preparations. If the red, constuction-paper decorations remind you of your childhood, then Oberly and her team of volunteers will be pleased.
We wanted the house decked out as if a family decorated it,” Oberly said.
The Dietrich Friedrichs House Museum of the Mt. Prospect Historical Society, 101 S. Maple St., Mt. Prospect. Hours are Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30-4:30 p.m, and Sunday from 1-3 p.m. For more information, call 956-6777 or 392-9006. Decorations will be on display through Dec. 23.
