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For thirty years visitors have enjoyed seeing the Bellingrath Home dressed for the holidays as they attend Magic Christmas in Lights. It would be wonderful if we had images of what some of the rooms looked like decorated for Christmas when Walter and Bessie Bellingrath were here, but so far, none have surfaced.
Ernest Edgar, Jr., a nephew of Bessie Bellingrath, was in attendance at Christmas dinners in the Home from the first in 1936 until the early 1950’s. His recollection was of a simpler time when the rooms featured red candles in silver holders and red poinsettias.
Greenery used in those days might have consisted of boxwood, cedar, holly, pine, magnolia leaves and Southern Smilax. A cedar Christmas tree would be set up and decorated on Christmas Eve in households where there were small children – not before Halloween which seems to be the current idea.
A photograph unearthed in the History Museum of Mobile features Ernest posed with his son’s Christmas train set on the floor of the Bellingraths’ home on Ann Street in Mobile. In the distance is the Tiffany Pond Lily Lamp and a framed photograph of Walter Bellingrath.
The fireplace mantel shows a very simple strand of Southern Smilax. That evergreen vine with its glistening green elliptical-shaped leaves grows wild around Mobile and was used for decorating every event from weddings to Christmas in years gone by. And this prolific vine gets its name from the Greek word for “clasping.”
Also in use for the Bellingrath table would be a set of china by Royal Worcester in their Regency Ruby pattern. This extensive dinner set has the production date mark of 1940 and while we use the china to decorate the tables in the Home at Christmas, Mrs. Bellingrath actually purchased it do complement her dining room’s color scheme year round.
Decoration of the interior of the Bellingrath Home will begin a bit early this year, but the theme of a Bellingrath family Christmas will be our inspiration once again.