Stetson Mansion is honored to have been named as one of the top Historic Holiday Homes Tours for two reader’s choice awards. Stetson Mansion was chosen as Florida’s winner in the USA TODAY 10 Best Readers Choice travel award contest for Best Historic Holiday Home Tour–placing third on the national list. Florida’s Most Historic Home was also named as the second-place winner in Fodor’s Travel Guide to Southern Holiday Homes and is the top tour in the state. They hope to earn those pre-pandemic honors again this year with “A Decade of Christmas Joy.”
Located in DeLand in West Volusia, this year’s “Christmas Spectacular!” journey through Stetson Mansion features 10 elaborate themed rooms with 23 Christmas trees, over two dozen Nativity scenes and several peacocks–a nod to Stetson’s love of the birds. Decorations change every year. Room themes this year include “Angels Appear When Cardinals Are Near,” “A Rockwell Kind of Christmas,” “Heroes Tribute,” “Snowbabies…It’s Cold Outside” and “Hallelujah, The Christ Child Is Born.”
“It was such an honor for us to be recognized as one of the best holiday historic home tours for two years in a row,” said Michael Solari, Co-owner of Stetson Mansion. “For three months, co-owner JT Thompson–with only the help of one guide, JoAnn Heinle, labored to transform this home into the bedecked wonderland you will see, all to help honor Jesus, John B. Stetson and the visitors we hope to bring some holiday joy to.”
”The Christmas Spectacular at Stetson Mansion will offer seven self-guided tour times daily through January 22, 2022. Reservations are required. Tickets are $27. This special annual event is expected to bring more than $3 million to the West Volusia economy this year. For more information and booking please visit StetsonMansion.com.
About Stetson Mansion
Known as the “House That Hats Built,” the home of John B. Stetson, Florida’s first “snowbird.” Mr. Stetson left an amazing cultural legacy beyond the world’s most famous hat. Stetson was known for giving back to the community and donating generously to charities, as well as for being a progressive employer in his Philadelphia factory. He had a specific affinity for DeLand and made this his family’s winter home. He became the main benefactor for the state’s first private university–renamed Stetson University in 1889 and brought electricity to DeLand, making it the first city in Florida with electric street lights. One of the first sets of Edison Electric Christmas tree lights hung on Stetson’s tree in the Mansion. The Stetson Mansion is the first and only “Gilded Age” mansion in Florida and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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