M erle Kirkley’s favorite morning ritual this time of year is simple.
He wakes up in the second-floor bedroom of his Dutch colonial home in Snohomish. He makes his way down the 106-year-old stairs to the parlor.
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Photo GalleryIt’s still completely dark outside, but with the flip of a few switches, everything around him comes to life.
Cabs bustle down busy streets as shoppers stroll snow-dusted sidewalks. Newsboys yell “Extra! Extra!” as they peddle papers to businessmen. Children build snowmen under the stained-glass glow from a nearby church.
This is “Christmas in the City,” a collection of villages Kirkley and his wife, Joanne, have collected for more than a decade.
Over the years, they’re purchased 61 buildings from the popular Department 56 line of lighted villages, scenes that take Merle Kirkley back to his childhood in the 1950s.
“I love nothing better than to come down in the morning and turn on all the villages and the lights on the trees. The details in the houses are unbelievable. It gives you a warm, comfortable feeling just to relax. You feel good,” he said. “I like nostalgia.”
This year, the Kirkleys will open their historic, carefully decorated home for the Snohomish County Historical Society’s annual holiday parlor tour.
Guests will not only enjoy the holiday embellishments, including Joanne Kirkley’s 1,000-plus ornaments on three Christmas trees, but they’ll also see her knack for simple, understated country decor, an ideal fit for their charming home.
Don’t expect the ornate Victorian architecture and interiors so common to Snohomish here. This is a country house.
“It’s just a plain, very simple house,” she said. “We’re very casual.”
Despite a multitude of holiday knickknacks, the Kirkley home is surprisingly easy on the eyes.
Plain, white curtains, uncomplicated wallpaper and solid-color carpeting and furniture put the emphasis on the home’s high ceilings, large windows and enduring original millwork, painted white.
Tour guests will notice a variety of holiday scenes, starting with the home’s small covered porch featuring an antique sled, a decorated entry and stairway, a parlor with a 9-foot tree and a dining room with a large bay window and a wood stove.
In the living room, you’ll find more decorations as well as a tall, skinny, space-saving Santa tree.
Be sure not to miss the country-style kitchen, complete with expansive windows, blue-and-white gingham curtains, a plate rail featuring holiday lights and Christmas china, and wall-to-wall, white-painted cabinets that rise to the ceiling.
Though the home, built in 1900, has been through three remodeling projects in the past 25 years, it hasn’t lost its old-house charm. Most recently the Kirkleys unearthed the old-growth fir floors in the kitchen and hallway.
“I think it’s a part of our heritage to keep these old homes standing as long as we can,” Merle Kirkley said. “We need to give them the care and love that they deserve.”
Joanne Kirkley takes special care to keep things neat and tidy, especially during the holidays, right down to the felt-like white fabric used discreetly to hide all the cords, plugs and outlets needed for their many lighted villages.
The Kirkleys, who have three grown children and three grandchildren, relish the opportunity to entertain their youngest granddaughter, Hannah, 9.
Joanne Kirkley has more than 200 Santa figures on the tree in the living room, where Hannah, who visits before school most days, likes to watch TV.
“I like it,” she said of the Santa tree. “Some of them make music. Some of them light up.”
Merle Kirkley said his wife is a talented designer who spends at least 50 hours setting up their villages and other displays, while he spends his share of hours hanging 20,000 lights outside.
“I’ll hang an ornament just close enough,” he said. “She hangs it right.”
For Merle, there’s no better place to celebrate Christmas and family than in their traditional home, also known as the Matt Albert House, after the first owner, a pioneer from South Dakota and reportedly one of Snohomish’s first saloonkeepers.
“It is a country home and it gives you the feeling of really what this country was founded on and the kind of life that people lived in the early times of this country. That’s the reason we love it so much,” he said. “You will never find a better place to live than Snohomish.”
Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.
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