Yuletide at Winterthur 2021

Nancy McDaniel's dollhouse, built in 1985 was again featured during the Yuletide tour at  Winterthur. The dollhouse's late owner's portrait is hanging in the miniature dining room. This 18 room replica contains over 1000 objects, including needlepoint rugs she made for the rooms.

 It was not easy finding an opening to see the tour this year--people are starved for activities and this masked only self-guided tour with stationary guides in each room was very popular.  But if you came to see if the tour incorporated any changes this year, you would be pleased to see that you get to see sections of two floors and some new types of trees are featured.  There is still a tree decorated with preserved flowers in the conservatory, and a colorful azalea tree is in the Readbourne stairhall (although the guide in this room had no idea what the name of the room was while she sat feet from a big sign with the name in red letters).

 A toy-decorated tree greeted visitors in the Montmorency stairhall alongside a tribute to Jackie Kennedy, who had asked for Mr. H.F. duPont's assistance in decorating the White House.  The Port Royal entry hall tree had some pheasants (I think that's what they were), a nod to the temporarily closed nearby Museum of Natural History. So yes, it still is worth a gander at this year's seasonal decorations and wandering around outside is for the brave (at least when it's very cold out.) And then we will be anxious to see the gardens again in March (the "March Bank" is a winner). And yes, there is a bloom report to check out!   And here is the whole dollhouse, opening from the front, in the English manner.