Deck the Victorian halls

BLOOMINGTON -- An authentic, Victorian holiday celebration will be featured during "Christmas at Clover Lawn" scheduled for November 24 through December 31, 2006 at the David Davis Mansion State Historic Site in Bloomington, Illinois.  Visitors will be delighted to discover what a real Victorian Christmas was like, and will be thrilled that they may touch and taste holiday items in the Mansion.

 

            When Abraham Lincoln and his family were living in Washington D.C. at the time of the Civil War, Judge David Davis (Lincoln's friend and appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court) and his wife, Sarah, were still back in Bloomington, celebrating Christmas just as the Lincolns had celebrated it in Springfield, Illinois a decade earlier—buying presents for friends and decorating the city's First Presbyterian Church with Christmas trees.  Twenty-five years later--long after Lincoln's death-- the judge's son was the new owner of the Davis Mansion and prosperous Americans were busy celebrating Christmas in a much more lavish style. 

 

            Bathed in the simulated gaslight of the late Victorian era, the 36-room David Davis Mansion will be festooned with boughs of evergreens, glittering ornaments, antique toys, and Christmas trees in almost every room.  An exhibit of an authentic German putz (village scenes) and a rare collection of antique Christmas ornaments (ca. 1870 through 1910) will complete the scene.  During the golden era of ornament making (1870 to 1910), Christmas trees sparkled with a variety of glass figural ornaments, cotton-batting figures, hand-blown glass globes called kugels, and Dresdens—the most exquisite paper ornaments ever made. Cottage industries in Germany and the U.S. fashioned these Victorian ornaments by the thousands, while producing other items that are sought after by collectors today: Raphael Tuck paper toys; crepe paper and scrap paper dolls; lead-weighted candle holders; wax angels; beaded tin decorations; and electric light bulbs in the shape of Santas, fruits, and flowers. Many of these decorations may be seen at the Davis home this December.

 

            Children visiting the mansion at Christmas time will enjoy seeing the unique collection of antique toys, a teddy bear tea party, and a rotating Christmas tree.  New this year is an unusual "upside-down" Christmas tree, suspended from one of the 13-foot-high

ceilings in the Mansion's main hall.  Altogether, more than fifteen Christmas trees will be

featured from parlor to pantry, including a 12-foot Victorian tree in the sitting room, a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch snow tree, five German goose feather trees, and a unique tree that was featured in December 2005 at a special exhibit entitled "Christmas at the White House" at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield.  Like the Victorian children who gazed in wonder at these fanciful decorations, you may want to try finding the glass pickle hidden in each of these trees.  If you succeed, you will have good luck during the coming year.

 

            As you tour the home, you are encouraged to touch, hold and examine replicas of authentic ornaments, Christmas cards, candy containers, books, toys and many other Victorian holiday items—to see what they looked like and how they were made.  You will also have a chance to taste a variety of Victorian Christmas sweets, including marzipan, sugarplums, mincemeat pies, plum pudding, and chocolate cockroaches—a favorite treat in Victorian times!

 

            Visitors may tour the mansion free of charge Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  On Saturday, December 2, there will be special holiday workshops for children from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Mansion's barn/stable.  There, children may make

and take home their very own copy of one of the authentic nineteenth-century ornaments which they will see on the mansion tour.  The workshops are offered as part of the Once Upon a Holiday Weekend.  All Christmas decorations are funded by the David Davis Mansion Foundation, and all daytime, public tours during December are brought to the public free of charge through the efforts of more than two hundred volunteers.

 

            The Clover Lawn Museum Shop, operated by the David Davis Mansion Foundation, will have many of the mansion's unique Christmas ornaments for sale during the holiday season.  Many of these items are not available elsewhere in central Illinois.  The David Davis Mansion Foundation and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which administers the site, are co-sponsors of the December events.

 

The David Davis Mansion State Historic Site, built in the 1870s for U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis and his wife, Sarah, is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The site will be closed on Mondays, Tuesdays, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.  The Mansion is located at 1000 E. Monroe in Bloomington.