Christmas open house benefits VWRC

With holiday carols, scented rooms, Christmas decorations and a multitude of gorgeously hand-crafted gifts, Christmas revelers can do their shopping Saturday while benefiting a worthy cause.

Harrington Gardens Bed and Breakfast is hosting its first annual holiday open house and candlelight tour to benefit the Valley Womens Resource Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

VWRC Executive Director Amy Smith said she hopes the event provides participants with a special holiday experience along with the opportunity to learn more about the needs and services at the center.

Its friends helping friends, said Jan Luce, who is helping B&B owner Cece Harrington organize the event.

Luce is one of the many quilters from the Valley Quilt Guild who are donating quilted wall hangings and other hand-crafted items that will be sold at the event. Other quilters providing items include Peggy Behnke and Mickie Woodward. Other items for sale are lap blankets, hand-crafted dolls, floral swags and wreaths, bird houses, butterfly houses, garden ornaments, collectible antiques, stenciled accessory furniture and hand-crafted Christmas ornaments.

Visitors will enter the Harringtons lovely home by following a path lit with luminaries to the B&B entrance on the ground level. There, they can leave their admission for VWRC. Shoppers are requested to bring food for the VWRC food bank, an unwrapped Christmas gift for a child or adult woman, or a cash gift.

Door prize drawings, including donations from local businesses and a one-night stay at the B&B, will be available for view downstairs. Visitors can tour the B&Bs exquisitely decorated Secret Garden Room and Garden Side Room.

Moving up to the second and third levels, shoppers will find beautiful gifts for sale, ranging from small knickknacks and Christmas crafts to antiques.

A crackling fire will greet visitors in the grand room, and area crafters will be demonstrating quilting, silk ribbon embroidery, spinning and weaving.

After holiday shopping, visitors may visit the garden cottage for hot cider and holiday treats.

The VWRC served Valley residents more than 30,000 times during the past year, sometimes providing individuals and families with multiple services, Smith said. Holidays are often difficult times for families because of financial pressures, daycare problems arising because children are home from school, and general stress.

Some families need resources and assistance during the holidays, and we try to provide that, Smith said.

A cadre of volunteers from VWRC and friends of B&B owner Cece Harrington are helping organize Saturdays event. We hope its as successful as possible, Harrington said in the midst of her house being transformed into a holiday wonderland.