When Doug and I toured Winterthur last year, we both agreed we’d like to do a more extensive tour. I suggested to Doug that we do it on our way back to NJ for the holidays and he agreed. No need to mention in advance that it would be decorated for the holidays and we could redo the regular tour again, right?
The enormous Dried-Flower Tree is made from the floral displays that grace the house during the year.
Close-up of the Dried-Flower Tree, which I thought was magnificent.
This tree is full of musical instruments, including a horn at the top, in tribute to the music often played in this room (you can just see a piano behind the tree).
The sign says “0 days since last Christmas tree incident” – LOL!! The tree is placed in this room because the room features many animal motifs inspired by Aesop’s Fables.
You can see the tree is decorated with cat toys, but also pictures of adopted cats through the nonprofit Forgotten Cats. Many cats are found on the Winterthur property and brought to the shelter for re-homing.
The more you look, the more you see! This tree made me laugh and laugh. Anyone who’s ever had a cat and a Christmas tree at the same time will understand.
Inspired by Winterthur’s Japanese Maples.
Winterthur’s owner had a fondness for green. Legend has it that 48 shades of green were used on the walls throughout the mansion. This tree features paint sticks of all 48 shades.
This tree draws inspiration from the many butterflies found in Winterthur’s gardens.
This peacock is an homage to the many peacocks found in Winterthur’s textiles and ceramics.
The tree and slip seats feature prints of items from the collection, but in Pop Art style of the 1950s and 1960s.
This tree looked very large when I took the picture, but you can barely spot it on the massive porch from the grounds.
Now that you’re looking, did you see the Christmas tree? Wow, this place is just ginormous!
Every year an amazing Winterthur-themed gingerbread creation is put on display. This year’s celebrates “Winterthur’s rich history as a dairy farm.” At its peak, the 300 cows produced millions of pounds of milk annually. This scene weighs more than 300 pounds and used 3.5 buckets of icing!
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