Six Sun City homeowners will show off their elaborate Christmas collections
For Elaine Gillam of Huntley, Christmas begins before Halloween.
She asks a friend or relative to bring down the multitude of boxes storing Christmas decorations from her attic. And then her home slowly transforms.
Collections of gingerbread men, candy canes, Santas, snowmen, angels, poinsettias, eight Christmas trees, Christmas figurines, wreaths, live green winter pots, Northwoods decor and more – all fill just about every single room in her Sun City home.
“I do little by little until I get it done,” she said of her Christmas decorating.
How long does that take?
“I almost get it done by Thanksgiving,” she said, “but now I’m completely finished.”
Gillam’s Christmas collection slowly has evolved through the years, eventually taking over her home during the holidays. So when she was asked to take part in an annual Holiday House Walk For Charity, “I said, ‘I’ve got so much stuff anyway, why not?’ "
![[Elaine Gillam is surrounded by Christmas decor in her Huntley home.]
In its eighth year in Sun City, the Holiday House Walk for Charity continues to grow in popularity, reaching near sell-out status this year. More than 350 tickets already have been sold for the 2 to 6 p.m. Dec. 14 event, which includes a dessert reception and raffle at Fountain View Center, said Marsha Geist, the event’s chair.
Hosted by the Sunflower Garden Club of Sun City, this year’s Holiday House Walk features six homes of different sizes with many of the homeowners not only offering a look at their displays, but also the stories behind them. Among the featured houses are those featuring trains, a pastel-themed decor and classic displays.
“The homeowners have some lovely stories to tell. They have beautiful collections of things passed down from generations,” Geist said.](26fa33bb-4091-4cfd-8d08-af6d3d8af50e/image-pv_web.jpg)
[Elaine Gillam is surrounded by Christmas decor in her Huntley home.]
In its eighth year in Sun City, the Holiday House Walk for Charity continues to grow in popularity, reaching near sell-out status this year. More than 350 tickets already have been sold for the 2 to 6 p.m. Dec. 14 event, which includes a dessert reception and raffle at Fountain View Center, said Marsha Geist, the event’s chair.
Hosted by the Sunflower Garden Club of Sun City, this year’s Holiday House Walk features six homes of different sizes with many of the homeowners not only offering a look at their displays, but also the stories behind them. Among the featured houses are those featuring trains, a pastel-themed decor and classic displays.
“The homeowners have some lovely stories to tell. They have beautiful collections of things passed down from generations,” Geist said.
[A view of the Santa collection at the home of Elaine Gillam in Huntley, one of six to be featured in the eighth annual Holiday House Walk for Charity on Dec. 14.]
At a cost of $10 a person, all walk proceeds are donated to the homeowners’ charity choices, which this year includes a greyhound rescue group, the Ronald McDonald House and the Open Medicine Foundation.
The Open Medicine Foundation provides groundbreaking research into chronic complex diseases.
“Along with it being a wonderful Holiday House Walk, it’s doing a lot of good,” Geist said.
For Gillam, the charity of choice is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in honor of her grown grandson, Gus Gillam of West Dundee, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a child. Her family participates in the JDRF One Walk in honor of Ron Santos every year in Chicago.
“It’s a worthy cause, and I whole-heartedly believe in it because they are making progress,” Gillam said. “Hopefully, some day, they’ll find a cure for all of these diseases, hopefully in [my grandson’s] lifetime.”
Family really is what has drawn Gillam to Christmas through the years. She said she has no specific reason for her massive Christmas collection. Only, “I just love Christmas,” she said. “I don’t know what it is about.”
She remembers celebrating when her two children were younger with her husband, Bob, who died in 1994.
“Christmas was always our favorite time of year,” she said.
A love of Christmas and tradition is what led to Karen and Bob Gienko’s collection, also featured in the upcoming event. The Gienkos’ display includes a Christmas village – “We’ve got a little bit of Bedford Falls, a carnival, the Dickens village. All of my houses light up,” Karen Gienko said.
A train travels through the display and nearby Santas, elves, dolls, angels, poinsettias, moveable toys, even Scrooge, add to the decor.
“It takes over the whole house,” Karen Gienko said. “We’ve been doing this forever. We started with just under the tree … All of a sudden, it expanded and it got a little bigger and a little bigger, and now it’s as far as it can go.”
For information on the Holiday House Walk for Charity, call 224-858-4843 or 847-669-8261 or visit www.sccah.com.
