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Holiday splendor The 40th annual Christmas Tour of Homes showcases seven Mount Dora homes festively decorated in yuletide spirit. STORY: THERESA CAMPBELL
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All proceeds from the $20 per person event go toward $1,000 scholarships awarded to high school students in Mount Dora, Eustis, Tavares, Umatilla, Mount Dora Christian Academy, and Lake County Virtual School.
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t’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Boughs of holly, decorated trees, Santa figurines, and snowmen décor will be sights to see when the Women’s Committee of Fine Arts of Mount Dora hosts its annual Christmas Tour of Homes from 11am-4pm Dec. 2-3. “People love going to homes to see what others do for Christmas,” says Sandie Moery, chairwoman of the 2017 tour. All proceeds from the $20 per person event go toward $1,000 scholarships awarded to high school students in Mount Dora, Eustis, Tavares, Umatilla, Mount Dora Christian Academy, and Lake County Virtual School. “We have a lot of really talented young people in the Lake County area,” Sandie says of students seeking to pursue college studies in performing or visual arts.
Applications will be online in March, tryouts in April, and scholarship winners perform at an awards banquet in late spring. Anywhere from eight to 16 scholarships are given annually, based on the success of the home tour. The tour is the Women’s Committee of Fine Arts’ main fundraiser, Sandie says, proudly noting her group has awarded more than $314,000 in scholarships, including $56,000 in the past four years. Some 356 students have received scholarships, she says, adding 241 homes have been showcased since the first tour in 1977, drawing 500 to nearly 1,000 visitors each year. “The Women’s Committee of Fine Arts is a bunch of women very passionate about scholarships, and the homeowners are passionate about it, too,” Sandie says. Homes featured in the December tour are revealed
the days of the event. Guests should go to the clubhouse of the Country Club of Mount Dora, 1900 Country Club Blvd., to receive a wristband and a map with addresses of the houses. Five homes are located in Country Club of Mount Dora; the other two are in downtown Mount Dora. A musician is at each residence performing holiday tunes. Sandie predicts the homeowners will start decorating their homes this month, and many may embellish their Christmas trees with ornaments of special significance. “Anything goes,” Sandie says, recalling the tree of a past home tour was decorated with teacups and silverware. Another featured gingerbread houses. “My tree in my living room has over 1,000 ornaments on it from the time I was a little girl. A few are my grandmother’s, some are my
