Sebastopol Holiday Home Tour house reflects the season

Christmas is all about sparkle and miracles for Leslie Kennedy. Her enthusiasm began with her grandmother, Cora Haulman, who always participated - and won - the holiday picture window contest in her neighborhood in the 1950s and for years after. Cora loved the season and young Leslie picked up her passion.

“My grandmother’s holiday picture window was always spectacular and her Christmas tree amazingly beautiful,” Leslie recalled. “I would sit under the tree and loved the sparkle. Everything was pristine, and she always had the latest.”

The Christmas tradition took hold among the Haulman women, including Leslie’s mother and sister, and Leslie continues the custom of decorating her home on Mill Station Road with lavish fun each year. Her home is one of five featured in the fifth annual Sebastopol Holiday Home Tour, a fundraising event for Pleasant Hill Christian School’s scholarship fund. (PHCS is a private school for children in preschool up to sixth grade.) Leslie’s husband, Gary, usually helps with the decorating, but this year Rachel Seidler, a parent at the school, assisted Leslie with the holiday transformation. The Kennedy’s son, Jace, once attended PHCS.

The Kennedy home is a Victorian-style farmhouse, which offers sweeping views of vineyards and apple orchards. The home was built in 1990, and the family has lived there for 24 years. For Leslie, the holiday season officially begins in September. Said Leslie, “I love the whole season, and we toast each season. The trees start coming out and are transformed for Halloween, Thanksgiving and then Christmas.”

Step inside the Kennedy home, and you’ll immediately feel the spirit of the season. The banister is wrapped with green garlands and red bows, and there’s a Christmas tree in nearly every room. The dining room has a tree decorated with glowing white lights, gold ribbon and angels, and the table is set with fine china and gold and silver trees. The parlor is more formal, featuring a Christmas tree decorated with nativity scenes to pay tribute to the true meaning of the holiday.

“It’s all about abundance and the bounty from the Lord,” said Leslie.

The living room (dubbed the “Santa Room”) features a tree decorated entirely in red and white, a tribute to Santa. There are whimsical Santas, bright red apples and ribbon, and a snowman top hat adds a magical touch.

The kitchen is cozy with pretty lace curtains on the windows that frame views of the vineyard, and is a children’s nirvana with delectable gingerbread houses and gingerbread men tucked here and there. The family game room is dubbed the “Nutcracker Room” for the season and showcases the family’s collection of 50 nutcrackers. Most are sports-themed. There’s a baseball player, a golfer, and a skier, for example, but other professions are represented, including teachers, winemakers and firefighters.

The Christmas theme continues upstairs. A bathroom features the star of Bethlehem with starfish and candles, and a small, wood-and-shell Christmas tree. In the master bedroom, there’s a dog-themed tree in honor of the Kennedy’s yellow lab, Roxy. There are dog bone ornaments, though real dog bones are added to the tree later. “But not until Christmas Eve, or Roxy will eat them,” said Leslie, pausing to laugh.

An office, known affectionately as the “Accidental Collector’s Room,” displays the Kennedys’ accumulation of canes, brooches, dolls and more from all over the world. But it also showcases a western-themed tree, a nod to Gary’s passion for the Wild West and his childhood. He grew up on a 3,000-acre cattle ranch in Montana, so the tree is trimmed with cowboy hats and boots, ponies and a sheriff badge.

Though the Kennedys’ two children are grown now and living in the area, their rooms are decorated for the season in honor of their childhood passions. Their son, Jace, has a tree in his room decorated with fishing poles and canoes; daughter Lindsey, who developed an ardor for shoes as a young girl, has a pink tree with a glittery collection of shoes. “She always wanted shoes, not toys,” Leslie said with a smile.

Each tree is unique in the Kennedy home, but the family favorite remains the little Charlie Brown tree, positioned on the upstairs landing by a window and decorated with ornaments hand-made by their children from years past, and random ornaments they’ve acquired over the years. Said Leslie, “It’s probably the ugliest tree, but it has the most meaning.”

What does Christmas mean to the Kennedy family?

“It’s all about giving and sharing,” said Leslie who’s been known to host as many as 100 people at her home on Christmas Eve and makes room for anyone who might be spending the holiday alone. “There are not that many Christmases in your life, so they become much more important to me,” she said. “I love the holidays. And every year, I think a miracle is going to happen on Christmas Eve.”