A Visit To Cathy Ann & Michael’s House
Hello, this is Cathy Ann Dewar, Development Director at St. Joseph’s Home, and I am inviting all of you on a photo tour of what I call, “our little house in the flood zone” nestled in beautiful Totowa, New Jersey. As you will soon discover, I am a collector of Dickens’ Village, Hallmark™ ornaments and all kinds of snowmen. Starting in January and running to early March, my husband Mike and I open our home, first to the Little Sisters, then to family and friends to enjoy all of our Christmas decorations. So come along and follow the Residents of St. Joseph’s Home as they go on a February Christmas House Tour.
The Living Room
The theme of this year’s village display is the works of Charles Dickens. In 1852, he wrote glowingly about the Little Sisters’ Home in London and was fortunate to have met St. Jeanne Jugan herself in France! The big village depicts the story of A Christmas Carol and the smaller display is made up of individual scenes from 8 of his novels, his home called Gad’s Hill Place and of Dickens himself giving a reading of A Christmas Carol. You can see that we don’t have just one Christmas tree, we have 13. Each tree is a separate collection of mostly Hallmark™ ornaments. In the living room: Santa, Disney, superheroes, dogs, Harry Potter™, cartoons, movies/tv, and snowmen. This year there is a Victorian tree to complement the Dickens village.
The Dining Room
This is where my snowman collections are set up along with 4 more Christmas trees. A tiny snowman tree in the vintage snowman display, a medium snowman tree, a small tree with Christmas treats and the last one with family ornaments. The china cabinet holds a collection of dated annual Lenox™ snowman. Beginning in 1998, my mother has given me one for Christmas every year. The village continues into the dining room with 3 vignettes in the curio, a Victorian Christmas card shop, a chocolate shop, and a Christmas crackers shop. On the way out please stop and visit St. Paul’s Cathedral in the big village. Look closely and you will be sure to see some familiar faces outside the church!
I hope that you enjoyed this mini Christmas house tour with our Residents. Perhaps you can come along again next year and see a whole different village display along with new additions to the snowman collections.
