Raney House hosts Festival of Trees

The historic Raney House Museum in Apalachicola will get into the Christmas spirit with a Festival of Christmas trees which opens Friday, Nov. 28, continues Saturday, Nov. 29 and thereafter daily during regular visiting hours.

The Festival culminates with a champagne reception in the Museum the evening of Dec. 13.

Visitors to the Museum, an elegant Greek revival structure with four stately two-story columns, will see how the home might have been decorated for Christmas in 1838 when it was built by David Raney, a prosperous cotton exporter.

In addition, four Christmas trees, placed on the porch and inside the Raney House, will be decorated by teams of volunteers including Amanda Kohler, Leslie Wallace Coon, Ruth Young, Lynn Wilson, Alice Gibbs, Carrie Kienzle, Susan Clementson, Mark Willis, Andrea Duval, and Joyce Estes and Elaine Kozlowsky representing the Calendar Girls who recently posed for a calendar to raise funds to fight breast cancer.

The Raney House Museum will be open on Friday, Nov. 28 from 1 to 8 p.m. to accommodate the large number of visitors expected in Apalachicola for shopping, the arrival of Santa by shrimp boat, and the tree lighting at dusk. Entry is free.

On Saturday, Nov. 29, the Raney House Museum will open at 10 a.m. and will close at 5 p.m. in time for the lighting of the Yule log at dusk.

The Festival of Trees champagne reception will be held at the museum from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Dec.13. Visitors will donate $10 at the door which entitles them to champagne and hors d'oeuvres. A raffle will be held with prizes which include dinners for two, accommodations in local hotels and inns, coffee table books, and others.

Raffle tickets are $5 each. All proceeds of the champagne reception will be used for improvements to the Museum.

The Christmas trees and Christmas decorations will continue as holiday features of the Raney House Museum until Dec. 23.