Bell Homestead National Historic Site hosted its second annual Mrs. Bell’s Little Christmas Party on Sunday, December 14, 2025.
The free drop-in event gave parents the opportunity to bring their youngsters out to explore the homestead during the holiday season.
Upon arrival, guests made their first stop inside the visitor centre for various crafts. Many made their own dreidels, ornaments and brown-paper gift bags to take home with them, while others chose to colour or play games instead.
Having worked up an appetite from their crafts, some visitors stopped in at the Exchange Café for a few tasty treats and beverages before heading over to the Bells’ 1870s home for a self-guided tour.
Fully decorated for a Victorian-era Christmas, the holiday spirit was alive and well inside Melville and Eliza Bell’s home.
“We always try to decorate the homestead they would have in the 19th century, keeping in mind the Bells tended to be a little more conservative when it came to the decorating,” said Brian Wood, Curator for the Bell Homestead. “See, when Alexander married his American wife Mabel, he actually had to get used to the more over-the-top decorating that was being done in the United States as opposed to the more conservative way the English and Scottish would like his parents. …But just as they would have done, we actually have taken a lot of the greenery that we’ve used for decorating here right off the property.”
“We have some really dedicated volunteers that love decorating every year, so they’ve done all the interior decorations,” he added. “We also have some amazing people with our horticulture staff down in the Parks department, and they’ve done all of the outside planters for us so everything is looking very festive.”
Inside the drawing room, Jan Hunsberger, Joyce Anderson, Lois Booth and Janet Snaith spent the afternoon entertaining guests with lively fiddle music, while Father Christmas chatted with children in the nearby library.
In the kitchen, Sarah Hamilton prepared brown sugar and pumpkin spice shortbread cookies in Mrs. Bell’s wood-burning stove.
With cookies in hand, families headed over to explore the Henderson house next door where Wood was there to teach them about early switch boards and the evolution of the telephone.
“We’ve had a good turnout so far, we’re not even an hour into the event and we’ve had a nice steady stream of people which is good. It’s always fantastic to welcome people to the homestead, and this time of the year tends to be our favourite because it’s really when the house comes back to life as a living home again,” said Wood. “We did some candlelight tours last night, which, for me, is great, because in the dark, the modern neighbourhood that surrounds the homestead disappears and the homestead is very much as it was in the Bells’ time.But, we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day today, it’s clear and sunny, and we even have snow so it very much feels like a traditional Christmas for us.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
