Our house is a sight to see, but the best time of year to vis­it is dur­ing the hol­i­days when we’ve decked the halls. The same is true for many of St. Louis’ oth­er fine his­toric homes, and here’s your chance to see six spec­tac­u­lar old build­ings when they are at their fes­tive best.

For one night only on Novem­ber 29th, 2012 from 3–8 PM, you will have a chance to see Camp­bell House Muse­um, The Eugene Field House, The Chatil­lon-DeMe­nil House, The Old Cour­t­house, and the Mis­souri Botan­i­cal Garden’s Tow­er Grove House and their hard­ly-ever-open-to-the-pub­lic Muse­um Build­ing, each decked out in their sea­son­al fin­ery. We usu­al­ly do this every oth­er year, but we had so much fun last year we’ve decid­ed to try it on an annu­al basis. This real­ly is one of Camp­bell House­’s favorite events.

The tree and crèche in the Parlor.

Each stop along the tour will fea­ture hol­i­day treats, warm drinks and reg­u­lar per­for­mances of scenes from “A Christ­mas Car­ol” by actors from ETC Senior The­atre Com­pa­ny. Many of the loca­tions have gift shops, so you can get a head start on hol­i­day shop­ping. To round out the evening, a buf­fet din­ner will be offered at the Mis­souri Botan­i­cal Garden’s Sas­safras Café, which will fea­ture a selec­tion of com­fort foods, includ­ing Home­style Meat­loaf with Wild Mis­souri Mush­room Gravy, Chick­en Paprikash with Rus­tic Dumplings, Baked Ziti with Spinach, Basil & Fresh Local Moz­zarel­la, side dish­es, and an assort­ment of mini desserts and cookies.

Par­tic­i­pants can tour the loca­tions on char­tered bus­es that will shut­tle them to the next stop, or they may opt to take a self-guid­ed tour. To pur­chase tour tick­ets, call us at 314/421‑0325, or click here to buy tick­ets online.

Man­tle in the Parlor.

Guid­ed Bus Trans­porta­tion tick­ets: $30.00 in advance, $40.00 the day of the event. Price includes admis­sion to all six loca­tions, bus trans­porta­tion and free parking.

Self-Guid­ed tick­ets: $20.00 in advance, $30.00 the day of the event. Price includes admis­sion to all six loca­tions and lim­it­ed free parking.

If you would like to make reser­va­tions for din­ner at Sas­safras Café at the Mis­souri Botan­i­cal Gar­den, please call the café direct­ly at 314/577‑0200. The buf­fet is $14.95 per per­son, and beer, wine and cock­tails will be avail­able for purchase.

So how does the tour work? 

• Buy your tick­et online or pur­chase over the phone by call­ing us at 314/421‑0325.
• On the day of the event, start at whichev­er venue you would like. All sites have the reser­va­tion list. If you opt­ed for the bus tick­et, we rec­om­mend you start at Camp­bell House, Eugene Field House or the Mis­souri Botan­i­cal Gar­den because those sites have the largest park­ing lots.
• 

  The din­ing table.

  Check in at your first stop, and you’ll be giv­en a lan­yard that serves as admis­sion to each site and, for bus rid­ers, it serves as your bus pass. For guests doing the self-guid­ed tour, you will be giv­en a map to each loca­tion at check-in.

• The event is from 3–8 PM, but there isn’t a rig­or­ous sched­ule. The bus­es are run­ning in a loop, con­stant­ly shut­tling guests from one stop to the next. You should only have to wait a few min­utes (if at all) to catch a bus to get to the next stop along the way. You can spend as much or as lit­tle time at each venue as you would like.
• If the weath­er’s lousy on Novem­ber 29th, we will post­pone the tour to the fol­low­ing Wednes­day, Decem­ber 5, 2012.
• More ques­tions? Don’t hes­i­tate to call us at 314/421‑0325, or email Shel­ley at shelley@campbellhousemuseum.org.

The Hol­i­day His­toric House Tour is a fan­tas­tic way to kick off the hol­i­day sea­son — we hope you can join us!