summary:
Merrehope, a 20 room Victorian mansion located in Meridian Ms re-enacted Christmas, 1880 portraying the actual Victorian Family, The Gary Family, who lived at Merrehope - a first time Victorian Christmas event at the historic home.
A first time event portraying Christmas, 1880 was more than well received by our small Mississippi community but was "the must see" event of the Christmas season this year.
Oh yes, there were skeptics, a ton of 'em...but those of us who created this event marched steadfast keeping our eyes focused on the Victorian Christmas Star we had placed to honor our large and loving Meridianite Victorian family who lived in this beautiful home.
Placing the star was just the beginning of a community gone Victorian, and in a big way! The final result was 71 volunteers from ages of 4 yr to 90 yr participating as a large extended Victorian family filling a beautiful 20 room mansion. This type volunteers, we like to think, are truly one in a million! By making their own costumes (and beautiful authentic Victorian era clothing - the big elaborate hats were divine!)playing instruments, singing, singing, singing Victorian era Christmas anthems, playing games, preparing food, researching Victorian traditions and then doing all of our own advertising...this was all accomplished in just 9 weeks, and, oh by the way, due to the generosity of our deep south close-knit community, all of the food, costumes, exhibits and the advertising - in short, EVERY expense was done as a contribution....therefore all proceeds of over $1700.00 from this Victorian Christmas event has gone to the upkeep of this beautiful historic home, Merrehope, and the money was much needed.
I mentioned skeptics earlier...because of their lack of enthrallment....(I believe at the beginning we volunteers for this Victorian Christmas event was advised "this event is just too ambitious") so we volunteers were only allowed to present this event for one Sunday afternoon and only from 1:00p until 4:00p...but, hey, we still had huge crowds, about 225 (the largest number of attendees for one event at Merrehope since 2002) and again the ages of the attendees (a wonderful event for the entire family) were from small children to the most elderly, all with sparkling eyes, happy smiles and many, many requests to repeat this event next year and the next and the next - and, we just might!!!!
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