Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens has amped up the enchantment for this year’s Deck the Hall holiday celebration.
From an animated window reminiscent of an old-time department store to a children’s area draped in dazzling lights, wonders await visitors of all ages at this year’s festivities.
Big kids — the ones old enough to have kids or grandkids of their own — are especially likely to be awed by the window, which stirs memories of trips downtown at Christmas time and noses pressed to foggy glass. The window is decorated with an evening scene of downtown Akron in the 1920s, complete with the Goodyear blimp circling overhead and the moon illuminating Santa’s sleigh.
Stan Hywet facilities technician Joe Ott created the window, basing its design on a vintage postcard of the triangular Flatiron Building that once stood at Main and Howard streets.
Ott was asked to create the window after building a replica of Cedar Lodge, the vacation home of Stan Hywet’s Seiberling family, for an earlier event. He’d never built an animated window before and had to work its construction around other duties, so “it was a stressful couple of months,” he said with a smile.
He got it done just under the wire. The last coat of paint went onto the window frame just the day before Stan Hywet revealed its holiday decorations at a preview event last week.
Ott constructed the buildings from wood and created the illusion of stars twinkling in the sky by snaking fiber-optic tubes to tiny holes in the blue-painted plywood backdrop. The blimp was fashioned from Styrofoam, which he covered with automotive body filler and painted.
Models of cars from the era line the streets, and an electric trolley runs back and forth on a U-shaped track around the Flatiron Building.
“I got to play with trains for a month or two,” he said. “That’s awesome.”
The window greets visitors as they enter the courtyard, just beyond the admissions area. That’s also where Santa lights the Christmas tree every night of Deck the Hall at 5:30, and where a fire waits to warm chilly visitors.
As always, the Manor House is dressed for the occasion, this year in the theme Home for the Holidays. The theme honors the fact that the family of F.A. and Gertrude Seiberling, Stan Hywet’s original owners, moved into the newly built mansion on Christmas night 100 years ago and continued to play host to family celebrations for years afterward. Screens set up in the house show the Seiberlings’ home movies of children in the family enjoying their Christmas gatherings.
In the Music Room, visitors will see a 7-foot-long gingerbread replica of the Manor House created by Stow resident Dr. John Learner, a dentist with a practice in Cuyahoga Falls and a passion for creating elaborate structures from sweets. Learner built the replica on his dining-room table, a project that took him 3½ years.
Just off the Music Room in the West Porch, an electric train runs around a display built by volunteers Charles Steiner and Lee Meyer. The train passes an Akron station built by Steiner, while an electric trolley runs back and forth in front of miniature cardboard buildings called putz houses.
Antique and vintage toys loaned from Susie’s Museum of Childhood in Carrollton are displayed in three of the bedrooms of the Manor House, and dozens of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls fill the end of the North Hallway. The Master Bedroom has been turned into a living snow globe, with swirling lights creating the effect of snow falling over a candle-lighted tree.
Outside, Stan Hywet’s grounds twinkle with Christmas lights, from the arches along the Birch Tree Allee to the miniature village in the Lagoon area. The children’s Playgarden has been turned into Gingerbread Land, a lavishly lighted fantasy land aimed at the youngest visitors but sure to elicit a childlike reaction from even the most seasoned celebrant.
Back this year is Dazzle, an outdoor light show animated to three holiday tunes. The centerpiece of the show is a 25-foot tree that changes color to the beat, surrounded by lighted decorations and apple trees that join in the dance.
Visitors can warm up in the Corbin Conservatory, where potted poinsettias are arranged around the base of tropical plants and layered to form a Christmas tree. LED candles glow amid plants and uplighted trees, while colored light bathes an indoor waterfall.
There’s no need to see all of this on an empty stomach, of course. Sweets and snacks will be offered for sale, and more substantial food is available in the cafe.
Visitors can fit in some holiday shopping, too. Molly’s Shop is stocked with decorations, clothing, jewelry, home decor items, Stan Hywet memorabilia and other items to help Santa’s helpers tackle their gift lists.
Those helpers might even find a few treasures to take home for themselves.
It’s Christmas, after all.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MBBreckABJ, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckABJ and read her blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/mary-beth.