In the true tradition of the 12...

In the true tradition of the 12 days of Christmas, the holiday celebration continues today with the annual open house at the historic Centinela Adobe in Westchester. Decorated Christmas trees and wreaths will brighten the 1830s-era adobe and the adjoining Victorian-style research center of the Historical Society of Centinela Valley. To guide and welcome visitors to the evening’s free festivities, the circular driveway of the historic adobe will be lit with 200 Southwestern-style luminarias-- candles in paper bags.

The open house began in 1971 when volunteers working at the adobe “decided to have a Christmas party to relax,” said society curator Betty Forsyth. The following year, it was opened to the public. “It’s a hello get-together for relaxation,” she said. “People come who have never been to the adobe and then they come back for tours.”

There will be refreshments and The New Sounds of Hawthorne will sing holiday music during the two-hour party that begins at 6 p.m.

The adobe, which contains furnishings and artifacts from the California rancho period, was once the center of the 25,000-acre Rancho El Aguaje del Centinela. Its most famous owner was Daniel Freeman, who turned 11,000 of those acres into a settlement that later became the city of Inglewood. The adobe is at 7634 Midfield Ave.