MONUMENT • As the winter holidays approach, one event highlights those homes in the Tri-Lakes area that have been exceptionally decorated.
The Tri-Lakes Women’s Club announced it hosts its inaugural Joys of the Season Holiday Home Tour, to be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, and Saturday, Nov. 20. Tralon Homes is the presenting sponsor.
Guests will receive a tour guide and gift bag, and will enjoy complimentary music and refreshments at the beginning of the tour.
The tour features five professionally decorated homes in northern El Paso County neighborhoods including Woodmoor, Gleneagle and Flying Horse. The tour homes and decorators were carefully chosen to showcase a diverse variety of styles, themes and colors.
From modern to traditional, each home will feature a unique decorating theme based on favorite holiday songs “White Christmas,” “Angels from the Realms of Glory,” “No Place Like Home for the Holidays,” “Blue Christmas” and “Go Tell it On the Mountain.” The tour is a way for guests to gain their own ideas for holiday decorating their own homes and enjoy a different holiday experience from one featured home to the next.
The Tri-Lakes Women’s Club traditionally has some type of fundraising event each fall, in addition to its long-standing Pine Forest Vintage Show in the spring.
“We were specifically looking for something that wasn’t already being done by other groups,” said Maureen Morgan, tour co-chair. “We will be the only holiday home tour between Woodland Park and Denver. We were looking for an event that could become an annual tradition people along the Front Range look forward to each year.”
One of the selected homes on the tour is the newly restored Reynolds Ranch Farmhouse, located on the grounds of the Western Museum of Mining and Industry. Built around 1892 on more than 1,000 acres, the ranch was owned by Joseph Reynolds and his wife, Sarah, who operated a dairy farm and lumber processing sawmill.
The farmhouse is an Edwardian Lake style ranch home and is the only remaining vestige from the old town of Husted. It is also one of the last ranches that represents northern El Paso County in the late 19th century and is included on the Colorado State Register of Historical Properties.
The tour also includes a Holiday Cookie Sale featuring four home-baked varieties: pecan snowballs, double chocolate peppermint, chocolate drizzled lemon kisses and holiday spice. Cookies are $8/dozen or $30/ four dozen assorted, and may pre-ordered at the event website, joysoftheseasonht.org, and picked up at the Hospitality House during the tour. They can also be purchased during the tour, while supplies last.
All proceeds from the holiday home tour go directly to community nonprofits through the Tri-Lakes Women’s Club grants program, to which qualified organizations can apply.
“We felt a holiday home tour has the potential to raise significant funds for our community grants program,” Morgan said. “Over the years, the Tri-Lakes Women’s Club has granted over $1 million to community nonprofit organizations, public service agencies and educational institutions.”
An all-volunteer nonprofit organization since 1973, the club’s 200 plus members contribute countless hours of community service.