Stowing Away an Old-Time Christmas

The gentle restoration of Stow House went far beyond lintels and mantels, whatnots and wainscotting and the perkiest widow’s walk this far west of Oyster Bay.

It produced a home again . . . as headquarters for the restorers, the Goleta Valley Historical Society.

It re-established Stow House as a community center . . . for Fourth of July picnics, barbecues, band concerts, spelling bees and simply a place for folks to be.

And each year, at this season, it allows the warm ghost of Christmas past . . . the one of ginger bread, of hot cider, of real wax candles in a tree cut from over the hill, of a full century of being the big house, the manor.

Better yet, Christmas is still a partaking at this old place, once the seat of a 3,000-acre Lisbon lemon ranch, the first in the state.

“I love to stand here, watching local people coming in and seeing their excitement at the way it was,” says Dennyson Treloar. He is president of the historical society, and the credentials are sound. The Treloars were early homesteaders in San Marcos Pass.

“Take the little nippers. They’re curious about the older things, about cookies on a tree and handmade toys. Look at the older people. It’s their chance to reminisce and touch the real things they used to know.

“The big houses around here were always a catalyst for the community. And these neighbors, their ranch hands, the help, were all part of a family that would get together for the holidays.

“That purpose is still here.”

Sunday a Victorian Christmas party will be held at Stow House. One dollar at the door, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Drive to Goleta, 10 miles north of Santa Barbara, and exit on Los Carneros Road off U.S. 101. For other events and weekend visits, call (805) 964-4407.

Turn right to the fire station. You really can’t miss it. Nor should you miss the wholesome way it was.

There’s a pine-log fire in the parlor and a porcelain Staffordshire spaniel commanding the hearth and its warmest spot. The main tree scrapes a tall ceiling, and few of the decorations are store bought. Gingerbread hearts. Cookies. Peanuts made into reindeer. Taffy that really stretches. And several trees so that no living room is without Christmas.

Cards are everywhere, and they’re wonderfully corny yet somewhat sad greetings from another time. Peace on Earth and good will to all men was more of a possibility then.

Upstairs, long stockings and little piles of packages are in the kids’ rooms. Furniture and banisters and picture rails are growing magnolia and juniper, pyracantha and pine cones. Nothing remains undecorated. There’s even a poinsettia sprouting from the toilet and holly hiding the chamber pots.

Santa, of course, will host Sunday. “But we’ll have to speak up,” confides docent Polly Drumgool. “Santa is a little hard of hearing.”

There’s a photograph in Santa’s sitting room. It shows grandfather Sherman Stow in 1906. He’s bending to hold the hand of a baby, Maria Ealand, who spent a dozen Christmases here. Miss Ealand is 84 now. But she’ll visit Stow House sometime Sunday.

There will be spiced cider and oatmeal cookies in the kitchen. In the butler’s pantry, a Christmas boutique selling real lead soldiers and hand-knitted slippers and patchwork dolls. In the dining room, yesterday’s dietary sins posing as lime pickles and butter shortbreads.

Of course there will be music. The Greenwood Players will offer the First Nowell and King of Glory and Away in a Manger. Mary Ann Malinowski will play tambourine. With May Saxe, Evalyn Rose, Marcie Tuttle, Emmy Vogt and Frances Dwight on krummhorns, viola da gamba and recorders. Bravissimo .

Too soon, it will all be done.

The tree will be taken down days before Christmas and donated to a neighborhood church. Small presents, cans of food, a stuffed toy, gifts that nobody really asked for but which appeared anyway, will be given to a local family.

On Christmas Day, Stow House will be empty and dark.

“It will have completed its task for yet another Christmas,” said Treloar, “and sent everyone home to better enjoy theirs.”