OCEANSIDE — The annual Friends of the Oceanside Public Library Holiday Home Tour will showcase unique Oceanside homes and over-the-top Christmas decorations Dec. 9.
Homes on this year’s self-guided tour include two historic Roberts Cottages, an exquisite Tuscany-style Henie Hills home, and a special showing of the North County Model Railroad Society small-scale trains.
The beachfront Roberts Cottages were built in the 1920s.
“They are very small,” Suzanne Williams, president of Friends of the Oceanside Public Library, said. “They were built in the 1920s as beach cabanas. Now they’re privately owned.”
Inside the cozy bungalows are unique features like a spiral staircase.
For the holidays they will be decorated inside and out.
A professional lighting service will install outdoor Christmas lights.
Inside vintage CocaCola memorabilia and tabletop trees will fill the rooms.
“It will feel like you’ve gone back to the 1950s,” Williams said.
The model railroad society will show off HO scale trains that will race around 500 feet of track.
“We have six trains or more running continuously,” Dick Miller, model railroad society member, said. “Members and docents will be there to show people around the layout. They can stay there to look as long as they wish.”
There will also be a special display of a larger G scale train running around a decorated Christmas tree.
Miller said that the model railroad display was so popular last year that the society was asked to participate in the home tour again this year.
For the most part, the home tour features different houses each year. Homeowners are recruited to show their houses by word-of-mouth.
“Neighbors ask and word gets around,” Williams said. “Some people love to have us go through their house, even 400 strangers. It’s pride in their home and pride in Oceanside that people are feeling.”
Refreshments, entertainment and an artisan gift boutique will be held at the Civic Center Library the same day.
Funds raised from the home tour and gift boutique sales will be used to purchase books for the Oceanside Public Library.
For Holiday Home Tour tickets and more information, go to oplfriends.org or oceansidepubliclibrary.org.
