This year Migration Hall has had to forego a long-running holiday tradition in our community — The Kingsville Christmas House Tour. COVID-19 is preventing hundreds of guests from gathering on that special weekend to visit the beautifully decorated venues.
The safety of all members of the community, as well as the desire to prevent the spread of this deadly virus, left the Kingsville Christmas House Tour Committee no choice but to cancel the 2020 tour.
It is a huge disappointment for the Committee. Although planning and executing the tour is a huge investment of their time, members genuinely enjoy this challenge each year. They look forward to creating this amazing event that brings together friends, family, and the greater community to launch the holiday season in Kingsville.
The very first Kingsville Christmas House Tour took place on December 7, 1991. It was an inaugural fundraising event for the campaign to build Migration Hall, a combination community and sports facility to be used by Kingsville District High School, local elementary schools, athletic organizations, and theatre groups.
Over one thousand guests were chauffeured to the venues in private vehicles of volunteers and on buses to tour the selection of homes. It was a huge success!
Migration Hall opened in 1994. Over the next 25 years, this popular venue has highlighted local talent, as well as hosting many out-of-town professional entertainers who brought their acts to the area. Some of Canada’s most talented performers have played this venue, including Stompin’ Tom Connors, Fred Penner, Stuart McLean and Red Green.
The Migration Hall Players performed much loved musicals including The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, The Music Man, Joseph and His Coat of Many Colours, The Secret Garden, Oliver, and Little Women. These productions have delighted audiences and allowed local performers to realize their dream of singing, dancing and acting on stage.
In 2001, a group of volunteers decided to make the Kingsville Christmas House Tour an annual fundraising event for Migration Hall. The combination of a hard-working core committee, numerous volunteers, the support of talented local designers, decorators, and florists, along with contributions from local businesses, led to the overwhelming success of this event each year.
It was necessary to expand the event to two days on a tour weekend to accommodate the many guests wanting to attend.
Pelee Island Winery became a valued partner, and allowed the committee to use a kitchen and reception room for guests to gather and socialize after the tour. Throughout the years the complimentary plates of sweets and savouries were donated by local restaurants, produce farms, high school culinary classes, and numerous home bakers.
The Christmas House Tour Committee is made up of a small group of volunteers who meet regularly for a year to plan and execute the weekend tour of beautiful homes and businesses. The mandate for this committee is to promote and support Migration Community Hall.
Early in the planning stages, a detailed budget for the tour is submitted to the Migration Hall Board. Then the committee carefully selects homes for unique historical, architectural or noteworthy features.
They supervise local professional decorators and homeowners that transform the venues into holiday showplaces. The tour usually features at least seven or eight venues including historical, and newly built private homes, a museum, a B&B, and a local place of worship.
Members of the committee create a tour booklet for each patron, which contains a map with the location of each venue, a detailed description of each place, and advertisements from local businesses.
A reception room for tour guests is held in the lower level of the wine pavilion at the Pelee Island Winery. They can enjoy a glass of wine, or a cup of Christmas tea with a plate of complimentary savouries and sweets. The committee has a large team of reliable volunteers who sell tickets, staff the kitchen and reception area, and act as docents to supervise and maintain the traffic flow in each venue.
The committee also organizes a small Marketplace of craft vendors at the winery, and a secret bid auction of gifts and décor items donated by local businesses.
The revenue generated by the tour is a major part of Migration Hall’s yearly income. When the tour had to be cancelled this year, the committee still wanted to assist with fundraising in some way.
Our long-time partner, Pelee Island Winery, is sponsoring a Kingsville Christmas House Tour Holiday Package of six bottles of wine, featuring special decorative labels. The winery will be donating 20% of the sales to Migration Hall. We hope that by enjoying the wines in this package patrons will remember the wonderful Kingsville Christmas House Tours of past years, as well as supporting Migration Hall.
Betsey Sabara has been on the Migration Hall Board of Directors for many years and is currently the Vice- Chair of the Board. She has been a member of the Kingsville Christmas House Tour Committee since 2009.
Photos provided by Betsey Sabara