A vintage Christmas with candy trees

There were pastel ornaments with hand-glued sprinkles on the Christmas tree in the Ladies Parlor at Meadow Croft. Its mantle featured glass jars with what looked like colored lights. Then there was the Butler’s Pantry with cookies. Look for the gingerbread theme.

All the rooms had a different one. Take a stroll. There are at least 19, including a bathroom with pink bubbles in the tub. Really!

A Candy-Coated Christmas at Meadow Croft, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 7 and 8, will have Santa in the Carriage House and hot chocolate.

But the beautiful decorations and settings aren’t organized by magic wand.

“As soon as the last tour finishes at the end of October, we bring things down from the attic,” said Bayport-Blue Point Heritage Association vice president and chair of the event, Leanne Berg. But Berg admitted to gathering ornaments as far back in January, when people donate to Savers Value Village.

“There’s a forest in the attic, countless Christmas trees, and 25 years of decorations,” she said.

Admittedly, it’s more than 10,000 steps of hauling, but Boy Scout Troop 130 helps.

BBHA president Mary Bailey glued on the sprinkles, a labor of love, as the glue was hard to get off.  She is right in there with Berg. They’ve been decorating the historic mansion every day. (Berg even hobbled with a boot on.)

A funny, affectionate duo, they add anecdotes to each other’s comments.

Volunteers also pitch in with the candy theme. The Sayville Garden Club decorates the back room, Bayport Homemakers, Neighbors and Gardiners of Bayport-Blue Point, board members and a couple of outside people pitch in, too.

Gene Horton handed the decorating project to Berg 10 years ago. “The piano is tuned right before the event—it’s organizing the piano player, the hot chocolate station, when Santa shows up, and parking for a one-lane driveway for 700 people. The train guys dwindled, so we had to reorganize the Carriage House,” she said. There will be a surprise. Don’t forget to check out the raffle baskets! There were 23, thanks to local businesses in the room with the pot-bellied stove.

“We have vintage ornaments, but not a lot because the Roosevelts wouldn’t have spent Christmas here,” Bailey reported. “It was a summer home. They lived in Manhattan and later on, in Oyster Bay.”

That would be John Ellis Roosevelt and his family.

The purple room is Gladys Roosevelt’s room, a cousin of Teddy Roosevelt and John Ellis’s middle daughter. She was an equestrian. (Sadly, she was killed at age 37 when thrown from a horse during a fox hunt.) In a nearby cabinet are postcards from family members in the 1940s.

“It’s a self-guided walking tour with docents to give information,” Bailey said. “There’s history about each room and the family.”