Clayton: Christmas Home Tour slated Dec. 14

CLAYTON -- Holiday festivities continue in Clayton with the fifth annual Christmas Home Tour, featuring five area houses appointed with treasure troves of snow globes, nutcrackers, handcrafted decorations, trees with a particular theme, and fragrant garland-wrapped banisters.

There's a blend of sumptuous dcor to a country feel; from old-fashioned to transitional styles.

In the past few days, Shawnda Waite-Lopez has been doing more than her usual multi-tasking as an interior designer and her work in the telecommunications trade; recently spending time -- with glue gun in hand -- affixing bulbs on wreaths to decorate Clayton's downtown, and prepping her home, with its winter wonderland master bathroom, for tour visitors.

"It's the ultimate," says the resident of Crystyl Ranch in Concord. "To have people (visiting) my house is a dream come true."

Her "deck out every year" dcor reflects "the spirit and meaning of Christmas," she says.

Santa's village that sits atop the grand piano in a 10-year-old home tailored to an Old English crowd, and under a chandelier is a burgundy-colored velvet and crme-colored tasseled runner on the dining table.

"It kind of takes you away. It has that feeling," says Waite-Lopez.

Meanwhile, Julie Mancini, also an interior decorator who is a longtime designer at Pottery Barn, has historically been considered for offering family and friends that element of surprise at her Clayton residence, as they gather for the annual ornament exchange or a holiday meal, with its style she describes as transitional.

"It has a look and feel that is warm and comfortable," she says.

"My inspiration is making our house a place to celebrate the holidays," says Mancini, who is also having a raffle to raise more funds for the landscaping project in front of the Clayton Historical Society Museum.

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Clayton: Christmas Home Tour slated Dec. 14