Memories Of A Christmas House Tour

 

Happy FRIGGIN Friday everyone! It has been one heck of a week! Between the Christmas house tour on Monday, early AM drive to Toronto on Tuesday, all day conference on Wednesday, the added stress of Dad’s hernia surgery on Wednesday and then the drive home on Thursday…this girl is spent!

As I mentioned above and before on this blog, Ryan and I had our house on the Quyon Christmas House Tour 2012. What is a Christmas House Tour? As a fundraiser for the church, people can buy a $10 ticket and get inside access to 4 homes in the community. Homes that volunteered to open their doors to the public to show off where they live and all the beautiful Christmas decorations that adorn their homes during the season.

My parents had our home on the Christmas House Tour over 6 years ago. This was before I was home from University and before any of the renovations took place.

Over the last 4 years or so, Ryan and I have literally gutted the house! Room by room we re-painted and put our own (or really my own) personal style. Making it “our” home rather then my parents.

I knew that eventually when all the renovations were through, that I wanted to have the house on the tour. And to be completely honest, it was for selfish reasons. After so much hard work over the years I wanted nothing more then to say we were done renovations and ready to show it off to our friends and neighbors.

And on Monday, we did just that. We opened our doors and let people roam into every room (except Tuckers).

I honestly wish that there was some sort of “tour” every year around this time! Sure, it was a lot of work to get ready but the HUGE plus, the house is decorated and every corner is cleaned ready for Christmas! Now, I can relax and wrap gifts! Everything else is prepared.

People are under the impression that to have their home on the hour that they have to spend a ton of money on decorations. This is SO not true! I may not have TONS of decorations but I wasn’t going to spend a lot of money on new ones either. I know that over time as I get older that I will receive more and I thought that having a surplus throughout the home would not reflect where Ryan and I are in life right now. Besides new bows for the porch, food and flowers for the dining tables all of our decorations were our own. For the most part, previously purchased (usually on sale) or given to us from Christmas’ before!

Around 140 people made their way through the front door. At times, if felt like 20 people would arrive at the door at the same time. We were serving wine and punch to every guest so that they could sip on it while they were walking through our home. We also had a spread of food for people to enjoy in the kitchen. This was all spread out on the island and it gave Ryan and I to stand and chat with people before they left.

Ryan and I later joked that it felt like the night went by in a blink! One minute our first guests arrived at 6:30 and the next time we looked at the clock it was 9:00! It was overwhelming at times not to be able to give your full attention to all of your guests.

I cannot lie, I really enjoyed hearing peoples reaction to certain rooms and answering the many questions. It was rewarding having people so interested in our home! Truthfully, having our home on the tour was the most gratifying thing to do after putting so much time and effort into renovations. Being able to show off something you are so proud of and see people genuinely impressed with your home was the perfect way to finish up the renovation process!

Happy Friday!

xo