DOORS OF HOPE CHRISTMAS HOMES

by KRISTINA DOMITROVICH photos by LINDSAY PACE

For the past three years, Doors of Hope F Transition Ministries has hosted a Christmas walk-through home tour, featuring five to six homes usually within walking distance, as its sole fundraising event of the year.

“People have really enjoyed going into the homes and feeling the community coming together,” said Susan Bartlett, the program’s fundraising chair.

Last year, the tours brought in about $15,000 in ticket sales and $45,000 in sponsorships. The money stays in the organization and goes toward program costs. The program? Helping homeless or at-risk families achieve financial stability through a rigorous program, executive director Mary Margaret Andrews said.

Andrews explains there are two versions of the program: The transitional housing program, or housing-in-place program. The transitional housing program serves to offer four to six months of shelter along with the educational program, and the housing-in-place program helps families before they are evicted, so they can stay in their home while completing the program.

The educational side functions the same for both programs: Doors of Hope will help its anonymous clients calculate a budget that will work with their income and insure they stay within that budget each week, teach them how to eat and prepare fresh foods to create healthy habits in the household, and sometimes even help participants earn education requirements they may need in order to secure a better, higher-paying job.

“It’s a pretty comprehensive program,” Andrews said.

During COVID-19, Doors of Hope faced a challenge of determining the best way to help those in Lafayette County needing assistance.

“We kind of shifted gears and we did a COVID-19 assistance program,” Andrews said. “So far, through that program, we have helped 85 families in Lafayette County with their rent and utilities. That’s six times more than the usual number of people that we’re able to help — we typically help 15 to 20 families per year.”

Though these families aren’t out of the woods yet due to hours being adjusted and other hardships posed by COVID-19, Andrews said it’s been very humbling to “talk to them and hear their stories, and most importantly be able to help them.”

In addition to shifting its program’s gears, Doors of Hope will also shift its fundraising event due to COVID-19. Instead of a walkthrough home tour, they have partnered with about 40 businesses in the area to design wreaths that will be auctioned off. Naturally, the event is called Wreaths of Hope, and will include a raffle. The wreaths will be up for display in various stores Nov. 7-21, and the virtual auction will take place over Nov. 18-21.

THE WALKINGTON HOME

Lesley and Brian Walkington met in San Diego at a swing dance class. The Mississippi-raised southern girl moved out there to pursue her master’s degree, and he had always lived in California. When he proposed, she told him, “‘I’m a Southern girl,’” she said. “‘Just understand at some point in your life, you will be living in the South, that’s not a question.’”

Their big move back to her homeland came sooner than expected. The plan was for her mother to move to California once the Walkington’s daughter Ruby was born, but her mom died when she was just six months old.

“‘I’ve got to get back to the South,’” Walkington remembers thinking. “‘Who’s going to help me raise my daughter to be southern?’ Because I wanted her to have that wonderful southern upbringing that I had, and I wanted her to experience small-town life and just know her community.”

Opening spread: Christmas ornaments serve as coffee table decorations in the Walkington home. Previous page: Greenery and decor decorate the Walkington’s dining room table. This page, from top: The Walkington’s Christmas decor has a classic, vintage feel to it. Lesley has been collecting nutcrackers for years, and says they remind her of a few her grandmother had. I think that’s important during the holidays, when people don’t have a home, and that’s what Doors of Hope is all about, is trying to find a home for people, and get people transitioned into their own home and to have their happy ending.

They settled on Oxford after spending a weekend getaway there, because, “I just needed my southern fix because I was missing my mom really, really bad.” Though she grew up in Jackson, her grandparents often took her to Oxford to see her aunt and where her father grew up. She had never taken Brian to the little college town before. While they were there, they fell in love with the town. They bought their 1939 house sight-unseen when they got back to California, and began the remodel. Once the majority of the renovations were done, save a few odds and ends, Doors of Hope approached the couple, asking if they would participate in the Christmas home tours.

“I hope that everybody can focus on the joy of Christmas. We all have family, whether it’s blood-related or friends that we kind of adopted as family members,” she said. “I think that’s important during the holidays, when people don’t have a home, and that’s what Doors of Hope is all about, trying to find a home for people, and get people transitioned into their own home and to have their happy ending.”

With about six months out from the tour and enough time to finish a few painting projects and anything else, they agreed, and made it their “mission activity.”

This spread, from left: The Walkington home features a mother-in-law suite, which they rent out for game days or to host visiting friends and family. The retro kitchen is fully functioning and has a round kitchen table in classic red; The master bathroom is embellished with plush accents and metallic trees on the vanity. Walkington brought Christmas spirit to the room by trimming the mirror with garland.

The Walkington’s Christmas decorations are “very traditional, and very red and green and gold and some silver,” and stem largely from Lesley’s childhood, or were inherited from her grandmother or mother after they passed away.

“My Christmas China I’ve had since I was 21,” she said, laughing. “My grandmother, Ruby, gave me that when I had graduated from college and I’d gotten my first apartment. I’m like, ‘Grandmother, why are you giving me this China?’ I said, ‘You know, it’s not like I have a family, I’m not getting married anytime soon, so why are you giving me this?’ And she said, ‘Well, you should have it, every girl needs a set of Christmas China.’”

Other things came from her grandmother as well, like Santa’s red sleigh that she filled with her daughter Ruby’s toys, a namesake to her grandmother. Along with the sleigh is Lesley’s favorite Christmas staple: A little Santa with skis on his shoulder, ready to hit the slopes, “Oh, I just love him!” Some other collections stemmed from memories at her grandmother’s home during Christmastime, like her nutcracker collection she adds to each year.

“My grandmother always had nutcrackers, and she always had them on the hearth on each side of the fireplace,” she said. “Hers were these big, heavy-duty nutcrackers, and so I’d crack pecans with it, and she would let me and I didn’t get in trouble or anything like that, and I’d make a terrible mess, but it was okay.”

The family’s tree, keeping with the theme, is also very traditional and sentimental. Each year, there’s an ornament added for Ruby, there’s an ornament “from her little handprint, it’s a reindeer.” Lesley collects ornaments with her brother, who often spends Christmas at her house. She and Brian started collecting crystal ornaments when they were first married. She kept ornaments from Washington D.C., from her grandfather’s time working with Sunny D. Montgomery.

The rest, she remembers hanging on her family’s tree growing up: The angel they got when she was in the first grade, colorful glass ornaments from her mom that she now hangs from a wreath over her fireplace, “beautiful teardrop ornaments that she had and they’re hand-blown glass and they’re about seven inches long and they have gold handpainted stripes on them — really beautiful.”

“My mom was the biggest kid I’ve ever known, and so I think she made me appreciate the holidays so much more, because she would get just as excited as we kids were, or probably even more excited,” she said. “She would decorate, and I always thought she was decorating for us, but then the older I got, I’m like, you know what, she was doing this for her because she just loves it so much.”

Now that she has her own daughter, she says she can see Christmas in a new way and through Ruby’s eyes. Since her daughter’s birthday is a few days after Christmas, each year, Lesley tries to make the home particularly magical during Christmastime. Two weeks before Christmas, the Walkingtons usually throw a birthday party for Ruby, where even Santa makes a guest appearance.

On Christmas Eve, they invite friends and family over for their big dinner, which includes chicken piccata and Lesley’s famous pecan pie — “everybody loves my pecan pies,” so much so that the first year she made it for Thanksgiving when she was younger, her mother insisted she make two more for Christmas.

Then, for Christmas day, the Walkingtons will spend about three hours opening stocking stuffers.

“We are big on stockings and stocking stuffers,” she said. “The stockings are stuffed to the brim and then there’s gifts upon the mantel, and then there’s gifts down on the hearth, and they’re just falling all over the floor.”

In their house, they open gifts one at a time, stockings first, then the gifts under the tree. It’s usually about 1 o’clock before they’re finished, and then it’s off to make Christmas brunch.

“Food is a big deal, and my mom was this wonderful amazing cook, so we always make what she made,” she said. “She made homemade biscuits, fried apples and country ham, so that’s our signature Christmas brunch.”

THE PERKINS home

When Doors of Hope first approached Jessica Perkins and asked to feature her home in the Christmas home tour, at first she declined. She said she prefers to keep her and her family more private, and opening her home would seem to negate that; plus, she wasn’t planning to decorate too much because her family would be spending Christmas in the Bahamas. Naturally, she had a few reservations. But she mulled it over for a little while, and agreed.

“You know, it’s really for a good cause, because it really is, it supports so many in our community that I just couldn’t not do it,” she said.

In the process of preparing for the open house, Perkins became very excited to decorate. Not only was she pulling out her family’s staples — like her signature Christmas tree — but she was adding to the décor, in part, for her five-year-old daughter Anne Hayden.

“This little girl we had late in life has just made everything so much more fun again,” she said. “Because she’s excited about the holidays, and she’s excited about decorating.”

In fact, their main tree, which is a live, giant tree under the 11-foot ceilings in the foyer where “everybody sees it,” came about because of her pregnancy with the youngest, which has sort of turned into a running joke among she and her friends. She was pregnant with her daughter, and wasn’t feeling well when she walked into Oxford Florals and saw a tree decorated in “all these real colorful, big, fat, colored glass balls” with “all the different colors like pink, green, clear, different shades,” and told the employees, “‘I want all of those.” And the rest is history. She pairs the Christmas balls with ribbons, like a velvety gray ribbon to pull the eye to the ornaments.

The Perkins’ house in Oxford — where she, her husband Dr. Hayden Perkins, daughter and two retrievers Penny and Poppy live — was once Dr. Wayne T. and Pat Lamar’s home (notable surgeon and Oxford’s first female mayor), which was built in 1842, with various add-ons over the year. The bones of the home have “traditional lines,” which Perkins tries to complement with her “colorful eclectic” style. Thanks to Anne Hayden, now that all three of her boys live elsewhere in Oxford while attending the University of Mississippi, Perkins has been able to play with even more color, especially during the Christmas season.

“With her, I’ve started, instead of doing all the reds and greens and everything, I’m doing the pinks and the turquoise,” she said, “and the glitter and everything like that, that maybe (the boys) wouldn’t have appreciated. I’m getting to go super girly, and (the boys) love it too, I mean they love their little sister so much. (She’s) the baby we never thought we would have, and the little sister they never thought they would have, and so we’re just kind of obsessed with making her a wonderland.”

Opening page: Perkins’ front door is decorated in greenery. She said she tries to incorporate fresh decorations like pomegranates or green apples because, “I love fresh.” But most notably, her go-to are fresh magnolia leaves. This spread, top to bottom: Perkins eclectic style is shaped by her love of art. Bold pops of color are found throughout the home. Here, a sitting room upon entry; Her daughter’s nightstand is decorated with whimsical pinks. An elf waits to be found.

And during the open house, she noticed the visitors picking up on the wonder of it all.

“I’ve noticed with people walking through that I didn’t know — people who know me probably know that’s my personality,” she laughed. “But they just kept saying, ‘This house is so happy,’ and it is the best compliment.”

But for Perkins, she’s happiest when her “whole crew” comes home over the holidays. One thing she said most people don’t realize is because they live in the same town her boys are attending college, and since they live on their own, they don’t come home for the whole month. They all come home for “at least one night” on Christmas Eve, but she joked that she likes to lure them home as much as she can during the season with their favorite foods, like “bacon and pancakes, every morning,” a family-favorite coconut cake, chocolate pecan pies.

Perkins is from New Orleans and her husband is from the Delta, so on Christmas Eve, the family sits down for red beans and rice, gumbo or her father-inlaw’s shrimp boil, “the whole nine yards.” On Christmas morning, cinnamon rolls are a big staple, followed by a formal late lunch in the dining room, with the classics: turkey, dressing, spinach casserole, squash casserole — her favorite and her mother’s recipe — and of course cranberry sauce.

“I love cooking and I love making them everything that they love,” she said.

This spread, clockwise from top: The Perkins’ deck offers a neutral, earth-toned palette; A huge window brings sunlight into a hallway decorated in evergreen; Her china features a southern twist.