We have some very exciting news to share today. The home of the Old Town Alexandria bloggers, Wendy and Alex, ahem, that's us, has been selected to appear on the Scottish Chrismas Walk Weekend's Holiday Designer Tour of Homes taking place December 1 in Old Town Alexandria! Yes that's right, our humble little row house will be decked out to the Christmas nines and open to guests for a tour. Best of all, it supports a really great cause!
Want even better news? We're also giving away two tickets to the tour right here on the blog.
As you can probably guess, we're a little bit excited about this whole adventure, but we're also a bit frantic. I mean, after experiencing this festive weekend as a spectator for the past 12 years, this is our first opportunity to be a participant, so we have some pretty big expectations of our own to live up to.
If you're not familiar with the Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend, let us fill you in on some of the details. After all, it is one of our favorite events of the year, and one of the prime reasons we think it's pretty great to live in Old Town Alexandria.
Each year during the first weekend of December, the Campagna Center hosts their annual Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend. This year marks the 42nd year of the event, which is a multi-day celebration covering the streets of Old Town Alexandria. The Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend celebrates the Scottish heritage of Alexandria, the shopping associated with Christmas, and the pomp and circumstance of a good parade. Throw in a little Scotch tasting the evening before, a whole bunch of men wearing skirts, and an official sponsorship by the Scottish government, and you've got yourself a recipe for a wonderful and festive weekend.
And if there are two things Old Town does really well, they're Christmas and men in skirts.
After the Friday evening marketplace and "Taste of Scotland" Scotch tasting, the weekend's events on Saturday kick off with a parade full of bagpipes and Christmas spirit. The streets of old town are packed with pipe and drum bands, dogs, antique cars, city government officials waving to the crowd, and Scottish clan representations from around the area.
Following the parade, hundreds of visitors enjoy the annual Holiday Designer Tour of Homes, where several private residences around Old Town are open for all to see. That's where we fit in.
While we were on vacation back in September we were contacted out of the blue by one of the chairs of the Designer Tour of Homes. The chair that wrote to us happens to be a reader of our blog and she was coordinating the various homes that would be on this year's tour. Her email asked if we'd be interested in participating in the tour as one of the subject houses. To say we were shocked, flattered, dumbfounded, excited, and surprised would all be an understatement.
Wendy and I have long talked (primarily in a joking manner) about the possibility of being on one of Old Town's home tours. A home tour was one of the events that first introduced us to the interiors of homes in Old Town, and the various tours over the years have allowed us to gain glimpses into some of the most interesting, grand, beautiful, and awe inspiring homes in our surrounding neighborhood. As a result, the thought of our tiny little 15 foot wide row house appearing on a tour of homes alongside multi-million dollar places that are literally jaw dropping is almost unimaginable. Surely the email we received asking about the tour had to have been a mistake? Perhaps our wide angle lens made our house look far larger than it actually is?
After much internal deliberation (that's code for us freaking out a lot and exclaiming many times over, "What if our house sucks and it's the worst one on the tour?"), Wendy and I decided we should throw caution to the wind, pull the trigger, and in the name of supporting a local charitable organization, just go for it. We excitedly wrote back to let her know our interest in participating and began working on the next steps to make this thing we always thought of as a pipe dream a reality. The main reason behind our decision to go for it? We love Christmas, it's for a good cause, and we think it's going to be a whole lot of fun!
Each homeowner on the tour is paired with a local florist and interior designer to pull together the whole look. Last week we met with our home's team to begin putting together a game plan. We're going to be working with Wendy's favorite local florist, Helen Olivia, as well as one of our blog readers and local designer, Sarah Bohl. Sarah also happens to be the person who thought it was a pretty great idea to contact us about the tour, so we're really glad she's our designer. We'll also have an elaborate table setting provided for the day that is sure to turn our red dining room into a veritable Christmas Party wonderland.
Last year Sarah was the designer for another home on the tour, and she did a spectacular job. She used old books as the inspiration and wove pages into almost every facet of the design. Here's a photo from the dining room, including the handmade wreath above the fireplace made from pages taken from a book.
You might recognize that dining room as it's in an 18th century home that was one of our Open Housing subject homes from earlier this year. Needless to say, we're super excited for the collaborative efforts that will surely result from this event, and for the final and beautiful look of our house. We're also especially excited to share the whole process and results with all of you. You had better believe you'll be seeing a lot of photos in the coming weeks.
Now Wendy and I have the pressure on us! We have just a few weeks to finish up a laundry list of items around the house, including the ongoing sun porch project. Wish us luck.
We really hope that those of you that are local will be able to make it. And I said earlier, it all supports a great cause. If you're interested in purchasing tickets to the Designer Tour of Homes, or learning about any of the other Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend events, visit the Campagna Center's website. We also hope you'll stop back later today for a chance to win two tickets to the home tour.
Does your town have a local holiday celebration that you enjoy each year? Any special traditions you have that make you feel like the holiday season has officially begun? Any thoughts on us being the tiny house on the tour that everyone says "How did that house make it on the list?" Sure, maybe we're being a little bit neurotic, especially given the awesome team of people that will be getting the house ready with us, but the voice is still in the back of our minds.
