Home for Christmas
CRANBERRY TWP — For the 10th year, the Cranberry Woman's Club is offering a way to get into the holiday spirit while picking up new holiday decorating ideas.
Its annual Christmas House Tour will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday.
Kathleen Perry, a club member who is a co-organizer of the event, said seven decorated homes are on this year's tour.
Those taking the tour need to check in between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Sunday at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center, 2525 Rochester Road. There they will receive a map and driving directions to the homes, as well as a program book describing the homes and their holiday decorations.
Participants also will receive a bag from Payless Shoes, in which tourists will place their shoes when entering each home. A handful of silent auction baskets will be available at the municipal center, and participants receive a snack bag.
Tourists also will get a ticket for the event's door prize, a collection of facial items.
The Seneca Valley High School's Madrigal Singers will provide holiday music at the check-in.
Perry said tour participants will be sent off to look at different homes to start to prevent everyone from arriving at the homes in one large group.
Perry said the house tour normally brings in $3,000 to $4,000 for the club. Added to the group's Farkleberry Craft Show and Spring Tea last year, proceed recipients shared about $8,500 in 2012.
This year, Habitat for Humanity, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Project Hope in Zelienople, Gleaners Food Bank in Cranberry Township and UPMC-Passavant's Cranberry Place senior citizen facility are slated to receive the bulk of the club's proceeds.Perry said the homes on the tour each have their own styles and themes, but all are exquisitely decorated.For example, the Franklin Road home of Shirl and Roy Lonie boasts scores of seasonal decorations both inside and out.Shirl Lonie said, while she is excited about presenting her festive home, she ended up on the tour unknowingly.She explained one Sunday when she missed church, her husband told a woman's club member there that the couple would be happy to show their home during the tour if event organizers were unable to find a seventh house.Roy Lonie kept the commitment secret, and Shirl only learned about it at church the next Sunday.“(The club member) threw her arms around me and said 'Oh thank you, thank you!'” Shirl Lonie recalled. “That's how I found out our home was on the tour.”
She said the large Nativity scene that is the focal point of her holiday home is well known in the neighborhood, as are her many other outdoor decorations. All are illuminated at night by hundreds of twinkling lights.The single-story house's interior is awash in Lonie's various Christmas collections, which include a Thomas Kinkade village and plate collection, a complete set of Hummels, snowmen, Santas, angels, Lennox seasonal designs and more.A 40-inch pine cone wreath accentuates the buffet in the living room.“It looks like a winter wonderland,” Shirl Lonie said of her home during the holidays.Perry said five of the homes to be toured are in Cranberry Township, one is in Jackson Township and one is in Wexford.“It's just a fun event,” Perry said. “A group of women can get in a car and have a good time for a couple of hours.”<br></br>
<B>WHAT: </B>Cranberry Woman’s Club Christmas House Tour<B>WHEN:</B> 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday<B>WHERE: </B>Five homes in Cranberry Township, one in Jackson Township and one in Wexford; tour check-in is between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Sunday at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center, 2525 Rochester Road.<B>INFO:</B> For more information, call Kathleen Perry at 724-538-3622.
