Many houses on the historical register find it cost prohibitive to decorate for the winter holidays the way it was done back in the glory days of the home. Luckily, the mansions of Newport, Rhode Island don't have that problem, because back in the Gilded Age, they were summer home and either empty or functioning with a skeleton crew in the offseason.
But Town & Country says that houses like The Breakers, Marble House, and The Elms are big draws for winter tours and holiday events, and so the stately homes need to be dressed in their holiday finest, which requires a team of around one hundred volunteers.
The Preservation Society of Newport County puts together a tour for Christmas at the Newport Mansions. Jim Donahue, curator of historic landscapes and horticulture at the Preservation Society of Newport County says that their group takes the feel of the individual house and turns it into a winter wonderland each year.
"Each house is stylistically different, and we underscore those differences through the Christmas decorations. The Elms has a pastoral, country feel to it, while Marble House is completely over-the-top Rococo, and the Breakers is Beaux Arts."
