Winterlights at the Purcell-Cutts House 2018

Designed by William Purcell and George Elmslie in 1913, the Prairie School–style Purcell-Cutts House will be decorated for the holidays to reflect the upper-middle-class, “progressive” lifestyle of the Purcells around 1915. Forty-five-minute tours led by costumed docents will emphasize the gifts, toys, food, and social traditions of the period that the Purcells might have enjoyed. For example, many people had begun to reject Victorian knickknacks in favor of useful gifts that reflected modern aesthetic values of simplicity and function. Decorations include a Christmas tree decorated mainly with handmade paper ornaments, some in the Japanese style.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website