Samantha’s Christmas Parlor

   Welcome to Samantha’s Victorian Christmas! If you follow my dollhouse rooms you might have noticed this room doesn’t belong to Samantha but actually is Rebecca’s Parlor. Since Samantha only has a Bedroom in the dollhouse, Rebecca’s Parlor will make a nice substitute for Samantha and Nellie’s Victorian Christmas.

To begin decorating the parlor, I removed all of Rebecca’s accessories with the exception of her wall hangings and furniture. I added tiny bows to pieces of garland from the dollar store and placed them on her piano, sideboard and shelf.

On the sideboard I added a tiny, real gingerbread house, Felicity’s party treats and Rebecca’s tart, teapot and glasses. I found the little edible gingerbread house at the dollar store and it reminded me of the one from Samantha’s original collection. 😉

In Samantha’s Pleasant Company collection a gingerbread kit was sold as part of her Christmas story. The kit included tiny pieces of pre-made gingerbread, candy for decorating and a piping bag with icing recipe.

In the post Christmas in Addy’s Bedroom, I mentioned that the first Christmas trees began in Germany during the 16th century as a symbol of Jesus Christ’s birth and resurrection. Through immigrants, the tradition was brought to America in the early 1800’s. Christmas trees decorated with lights and sugar ornaments became very popular in the 1850’s due to the world’s fascination with the royal family.

In 1848, The Illustrated London News published an article describing Queen Victoria’s Christmas trees at Windsor Castle. After the cover image of the royal family surrounding a Christmas tree was printed, decorating a tree became the new fashion among wealthy and middle class families in America. Grandmary, Samantha’s wealthy grandmother raising her, would have embraced this fashion in her younger years and would have passed the tradition on to her granddaughter in 1904.

The family would have also had the money to afford a large tree and glass ornaments. Glass tree ornaments became popular in the late 1840’s and were imported and sold in American 5 and 10 cent stores in the 1880’s.

An 18-inch Christmas tree sits in the doll room corner decorated with tinsel and glass ornaments. Above the tree are small wall shelves are holding Samantha’s music box and some tiny caroler figures that I found.

Under the tree are some packages for Samantha and a new dollhouse for her Bedroom. The dollhouse was an ornament I found this season and the coloring works so much better with her room than the current one on display. Two small nutcrackers from Hobby Lobby look very Victorian on Melody’s piano with garland and a bowl of ornaments.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of Samantha’s holiday space! I wish you and your family a joyous Christmas season. Merry Christmas from my dollhouse to yours!

To see more Christmas doll rooms, check out these posts: Christmas in Addy’s Bedroom, Christmas in Mrs. Ford’s Dress Shop, Christmas in Maryellen’s Diner, Kit’s Christmas Kitchen and Doll House Christmas 2019.