Want to get into the Christmas spirit and get some holiday decor ideas?
The 27th annual Chez Noel Home Tour kicks off today and continues through tomorrow. It’s a self-guided tour of three of Bakersfield’s most beautifully decorated homes for the holidays.
While many of us have been spending the long weekend getting our house Christmas ready, at least one family can sit back and relax in the knowledge that their decorating work is already done.
Diane and Art Dansby’s home in northwest Bakersfield is decorated for the holidays in each of its four bedrooms, as well as its hallways, bathrooms and even its laundry room. In the house are 11 artificial trees, adorned with ornaments fitting the seasonal theme of each room. A 12th tree in the front walkway welcomes guests and gives them a hint of what they’re about to experience inside.
The Dansby house is one of three stops on the 27th annual Chez Noel Holiday Home Tour, put on by the Assistance League Dec 1 and 2. Married for 37 years, the Dansbys, who have lived in their current house for a year and a half, were asked back in the summer, when Christmastime was far out of mind for most people, to open their home to the more than 1,000 Chez Noel tourists.
Ultimately, Dansby decided to go for it because Chez Noel benefits a good cause: funds raised from the tour, about $40,000, help the league with programs like Operation School Bell, through which the organization has given school clothes to more than 3,500 children since August, said Deanna Smith, co-chairwoman of the event’s house-finding committee. The tour raises money through ticket sales and purchases made at the league’s Bargain Box thrift store and boutique, which are open as part of the tour.
The other two houses on the Chez Noel tour include one in Iron Oak Estates, off Norris and Coffee roads, and one in Haggin Oaks, off Ming Avenue across from The Marketplace. The tour offers people the chance to peek inside others’ homes and see how they decorate for the holidays.
“It gets them into the spirit of Christmas, and also they get ideas,” Smith said. “Diane has done so much in her home. I think (seeing the houses) gives them inspiration.”
Buying many of her Christmas decorations online in October, Dansby started working on her house in earnest in early November and had most of the house in shiny, glittery, Santa-ready condition a week before Thanksgiving. She had a little help from family and friends but did the bulk of the work herself, over weekends and in the evenings after working at the landscaping company she and her husband own.
“At first I didn’t know what to do; I’d stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning” working on things, Dansby said, adding that she once woke up at 4 a.m. with an idea that she immediately started on. “I’m not trained to decorate. I just play with it, and eventually I get it a way that I like.”
The Dansbys live in the Tuscan-style home with their pets; their two adult sons live on their own. In their short time living there, they’ve made the place their own by lightening up each of the previously dark rooms. In the master bedroom, they put in a white brick wall and white-accented beams. Dansby described the interior of the room as glittery, neutral and wooden, inspiration she used for the room’s tree. Flocked with sparkly white “snow,” the tree is decked out in swirly wooden globes and hearts.
The office is regularly decorated in a bird and nature theme, with a few pieces of art on the walls featuring the winged creatures. For the tree in that room, Dansby found ornaments that look like real bird nests. More of those nest ornaments are found on four smaller trees in the house’s entryway, which all have an owl-theme. The pink, beige and floral motif of the guest room make a similar appearance in that room’s tree, with pink flowers throughout and white flowers at the top.
A decoration that is likely to surprise and tickle visitors are the two “Party Girls” in the Dansbys’ game room. Lulu and Blanche are life-sized dolls made by Katherine’s Collection, and Dansby has one posed on a chair and the other on the bar counter. Dansby said it was her husband who wanted them.
The sitting room has an “aged” feel to it, Dansby said. On the tree in this room are individual pieces from a traditional Nativity set, which Dansby wired and turned into ornaments to sit among the metallic orbs, white poinsettias and large gold ribbon.
Since this year’s Christmas decorations go above and beyond what the family usually does, Dansby had to do some serious shopping to prepare for Chez Noel.
“I had probably not quite half of it,” she said. “I did buy a lot of new stuff. I never really decorate every room or put a tree in every room.”
Dansby is likely to get good use out of her new decorations though: the couple will host Christmas for their family and friends this year and might throw a big New Year’s Eve party like they did last year, she said.
Chez Noel guests can visit the Dansby house, the two others and the Assistance League in whatever order they choose. Starbucks coffee and snacks will be awaiting them at the league’s Bargain Box and boutique.
“It’s a fun time for people and their friends to get together and tour these houses,” Smith said. “It’s become part of (a lot of people’s) annual Christmas tradition.”
Tickets are $40 per person. The price includes entry to the homes, complimentary coffee and snacks.
All proceeds benefit the Assistance League of Bakersfield’s philanthropic programs, which serve children and adults in our community.
