In a tradition that dates back more than 60 years, the Aurora Historical Society’s Tanner House Museum is once again decked out for the holiday season.
The historic house at 305 Cedar St. in Aurora will open for tours of its decorated rooms beginning Sunday, from 1 to 4 p.m. Tours will be available from 4 to 7 p.m. on Fridays, Dec. 13, 20 and 27, and from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays, Dec. 8, 15, 22 and 29. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated, officials said. After Dec. 29, the Tanner House Museum closes until the spring.
For the “A Very Tanner Christmas” tours, volunteers have again decorated each room in the house in different holiday motifs.
The large parlor features a 12-foot Christmas tree, a dollhouse and other decorations, according to a press release from the Aurora Historical Society.
“The dining room is laid out for a Christmas feast,” the press release said. “A bedroom features a December bride from the 1890s. An upstairs room has been decorated as a World War II Christmas.”
The kitchen is operating as the gift shop, featuring some of the museum’s holiday gift items for sale.
Aurora Historical Society Executive Director John Jaros said decorating the Tanner House for the holidays goes back several decades.
“What I know is, we have done something for Christmas, some kind of decorating or celebration, since the 1960s,” he said. “For sure, I know that. They might have done something before that as the museum has been operating since the 1930s.
“People keep coming back,” he said about the annual celebration. “If they’re like me, I’m a history guy and I’m a Christmas guy and my favorite time of year as well as other people is now. They want to get out and see how things are decorated for the holidays.”
Jaros said that “here at the Tanner House, every year, it’s a little bit different.”
“We have different people come in and offer different takes on things and it’s never quite the same,” he said. “I think that’s one of the fun things about it. It changes from year-to-year but it’s still the beautiful Victorian house no matter how you do it and, for me, I visit a lot of historic houses over the course of any year but my favorite time to go to them is Christmas.
“Usually, they always look the best that way,” he said. “Any house looks the best when it’s decorated for Christmas.”
Jaros said that many people make it a point to come every year to visit the Tanner House during the Christmas season.
“Yet every year, we get new people who have never come for this event. They’ll say we’ve come for your Fourth of July or I haven’t been to a museum since I was a kid or I’ve never been to your museum and I’m coming for the first time now,” he said. “This is one of the times when we do get a number of people through the door.”
Jaros said this year’s design choices are in keeping with the nature of the home.
“We still wanted to honor the house as an historic house and not change a lot so we kept a Victorian spirit with some modern touches,” he said. “It’s not decorated strictly Victorian, as that would be pretty sparse. We wouldn’t have a Christmas tree in every room and we wouldn’t have electric lights and there are trees in most of the rooms. I guess it’s just a traditional, holiday look.”
He said one room has the look of the 1940s.
“We had a decorator come in and he wanted to do a World War II-era Christmas so we transformed that room. There’s a picture of (President) Roosevelt on the wall, there’s a radio in the room but there is still a Christmas tree with lots of tinsel. But there is still a general Hallmark-ish look.”
Jaros praised the work put in by “our general core volunteers” in decorating the house and getting it ready for the tours.
For information on the holiday tours, call the Aurora Historical Society’s main office at 630-906-0650 or the Tanner House Museum at 630-897-9029, or go online to www.aurorahistory.org or find the society on Facebook at Facebook.com/aurorahistory.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
