Stetson Mansion Christmas Spectacular offers glittering showcase of historic landmark
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DELAND — It again looks a lot like Christmas at Stetson Mansion.
After nearly four months of decorating and a year’s worth of planning, the historic landmark’s popular Christmas Spectacular is drawing guests from throughout Central Florida for tours of the home and its carefully landscaped 2.3-acre grounds, less than a block east of State Road 15A on Camphor Lane, all decked out head-to-toe for the season.
“It’s just incredible,” said Darlene Saal, who traveled from The Villages to introduce her friend, Deborah Smith, to the attraction. “It’s breathtaking. Everything is covered in Christmas.”
They were among a throng of midday visitors earlier this week that packed the parking area on the property’s west lawn, eager for an experience to put them in the Christmas spirit.
The Christmas tours now are the only opportunity to tour the nearly 10,000-square foot mansion, once the summer home of John B. Stetson, legendary hatmaker and namesake of Stetson University.
Earlier this year, the home’s co-owners Michael Solari and JT Thompson announced that they were ending historic tours outside the holiday season that had been offered for 16 years to concentrate solely on presenting the Christmas Spectacular.
“We realized that most of the people come at Christmas,” Solari said, as greeted guests in the home’s parlor. “We spend all year planning this, starting the day after we close the previous year.”
Stetson Mansion is now Christmas Mansion
As part of that focus, the attraction has rebranded itself as the Christmas Mansion, to acknowledge the popular tours and power online searches by those interested in experiencing it, Solari said.
Inside the home, the tour offers a dazzling, imaginative and painstakingly detailed display that blankets 10 rooms in the mansion with 10 different themes. The stories range from a nostalgic “Coming Home for Christmas” village to a salute to the home’s famous namesake adorned with historic artifacts to an “Enchanted Woods” populated by elves and fairies.
In the latter, Thompson, the mastermind of the seasonal décor that changes annually, hand-printed more than 120 mushrooms incorporated into the design, Solari said.
Throughout the home, the décor also includes 15 nativity scenes, reflecting an emphasis that the tour is about Christmas, not a broader defined “holiday” season, Solari said.
“There’s a meaning for everything that’s planned,” he said. “The real message is to celebrate Christmas. It’s a Christmas tour.”
An award-winning Christmas display
Now in its 12th year, the Christmas Spectacular has garnered an array of travel industry accolades, including a ranking among the Top 10 U.S. Attractions nationwide as part of the 2022 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Awards presented by travel website TripAdvisor.com. It’s also ranked among the Top 10 Holiday Home Tours in the United States by USA Today.
In case you missed it: Stetson Mansion in DeLand ranked among nation's Top 10 in attractions by TripAdvisor
Built in 1886, the Stetson Mansion features 10 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms, along with a schoolhouse and carriage house.
Thompson and Solari bought the mansion in 2005 for $565,000, according to Volusia County Property Appraiser records. Although they had renovated some homes and hotel properties in South Florida, they had no previous experience in working on historic architecture.
On a shoestring budget and with the help of sponsorships from some 325 companies, they spent 18 months and more than $3 million to return the neglected home to its Gilded Age glory.
At Christmas time, that glory is awash in the spirit of season.
“It’s absolutely exquisite,” said Linda Roy, who traveled from Jacksonville to see the display for the first time at the urging of a friend in DeLand. “It’s beyond what I could have expected: the imagination, the color, the details. It’s just fabulous.
If you go
WHAT: Stetson Mansion Christmas Spectacular
WHERE: 1031 Camphor Lane, DeLand
WHEN: Self-guided and guided tours offered daily through Jan. 20, with exception of Dec. 24, 25, 31 and Jan. 1. Reservations required at stetsonmansion.com
COST: $29.50 adults, $15 for ages 1-22 (plus tax and fee) for self-guided tours; $38 adults, $25 ages 1-22 (plus tax and fee) for guided tours.
ONLINE: stetsonmansion.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Stetson Mansion Christmas Spectacular offers seasonal tour in DeLand
