PORT LUDLOW — Christmas cheer and sparkle help to brighten up the lengthening gray gloom of the season, say five families who will open their decorated homes to visitors Saturday.
The Port Ludlow families will share their conviviality, their personally unique decor to celebrate the tradition and, in the process, help out a good cause.
What could be more in keeping with the holiday spirit?
The Port Ludlow Community Enrichment Alliance Holiday Home Tour will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The admission price of $15 in advance or $20 on the day of the event will support the Community Enrichment Alliance scholarship fund, which benefits Chimacum High School students.
Scholarship candidates participate as volunteer hosts at each home.
Rooms in Jan and Arn Ditmar’s home overlooking Twin Island in Ludlow Bay are scattered with artful arrangements of pears, a collecting favorite of Jan’s, and one tree near their staircase features pear ornaments.
“Pears are my main thing,” Jan said, laughing.
“I’m very fussy, and I don’t just want any kind of pear.”
The Ditmars’ dining room is alit with a table set with sparkling crystal and china, just the way it will be on the big day.
Other homes on the tour may feature nautical touches like the Drapers’, in keeping with the waterside setting at Port Ludlow, with each reflecting its owners’ personal style and experience.
Bob and Jamie Bima’s holiday always includes their ornament collection from Harrod’s in London.
Beth Weaver likes to show her assortment of Santa watercolors from her grandmother, and the Duhons’ home boasts a life-size, old-fashioned Santa.
The Community Enrichment Alliance’s annual Holiday Home Tour received a special gift in this, its fifth year, from McCrorie Carpet One store, a generous donation of $500 toward the event.
A brochure describing each home also serves as the ticket to the event.
Today, tickets can be purchased online for a $15 at www.brownpapertickets.com.
On Saturday, tickets will be available for $20 at the Resort at Port Ludlow; McCrorie at the corner of state Highway 20 and Rhody Drive; Dana Pointe Interiors, 62 Village Way; or Shirley’s Secret Garden, on state Highway 20 outside Port Townsend.
Ticket holders are entitled to $2 off lunch or a free dessert with dinner at the resort.
For more information, phone Dee McConnell at 360-437-7648 or Patricia Archibald at 360-437-0950.
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Phone her at 360-385-4645 or e-mail juliemccormick10@gmail.com.
