Tickets are still available for Dec. 13 event
By Barb Pert Templeton
The 27th Annual Holiday Home Tour in Marine City, sponsored by the Marine City Women’s Civic Club, will feature two historic homes, one bungalow and a newer bed and breakfast.
In addition, the Marine City Museum and the old Red Brick School House will also be fully decorated for the holidays adding, two more stops to the popular event.
The tour is set for Saturday, Dec. 13 from 5 to 8 p.m. and tickets are $20 each. All of the locations listed will be open to visitors that evening although it’s not promoted as a walking tour as there’s some distance between participating locations.
Tour guides at each site will welcome visitors and share tidbits about the homes. The tour is promoted as self-guided and ticket holders will need to drive to each place. Although all the homes listed on the 2025 itinerary are within the city limits and the school house is at the edge of town falling into East China.
This flyer promoting the annual Holiday Home Tour in Marine City has been circulating in the area since mid-November.
All proceeds from the homes tour will go to the Women’s Civic Club who in turn utilize all of the money to support projects in the community, according to Pat Davis, president of the Marine City Women’s Civic Club.
In a recent phone interview Davis shared information about the club and the upcoming tour. She said when the holiday home tours began the idea was to show off the large Victorian dream homes in the city that carried so much history within their walls. Later, the tour added non-Victorian style homes too, some that were just cozy and eager to welcome visitors and others, like a small bungalow built after WWII that boasts lots of charm.
Davis said the bed and breakfasts, which are now plentiful in the city, took the place of the churches that used to be added to the holiday tour. People like to get a look inside local Airbnb’s so they can in turn, recommend one to their visiting relatives, she added.
Now in its 27th season, the home tour was halted in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic so instead, organizers did a documentary featuring several homes. Davis said viewers were able to
support the club’s efforts that year by offering monetary donations online. The holiday tour schedule made its comeback in the city in 2022.
In addition to the pair of historic Victorian homes – Heather House and the Sadler Home – the 2025 tour will also include the Harbor House Airbnb near Marine City Beach and a smaller bungalow built by the Yelencich family after WWII.
“The decorations in all these homes are just so beautiful and there’s the history there too,” Davis said. “And so many people say they know of the Heather House but haven’t been inside so this is their chance.”
Beyond homes, the 2025 tour will also include the ‘Little Red School House,’ a brick building from the mid-1800’s that will be decked out in authentic era holiday decorations complete with candles, dried fruits and paper chains. A tour guide will talk about the past at the school house and two local musicians will play a dulcimer stringed instrument and a fiddle.
A stop along Water Street at the Marine City Museum is also part of the tour, a spot that used to be the home of the Ward family, who founded the city in the 1830’s.
The Heather House Bed and Breakfast is a Victorian style home from the 1800’s and will be part of the Holiday Home Tour in Marine City this weekend.
“The history of the town really shines through with this tour,” Davis said.
The event has grown in popularity over the years with average attendance bringing out about 190 people, Davis said. Although, when the Brennan House in St. Clair was added to the tour last year there were 450 tickets sold.
Visitors to the homes are asked not to take photos and must slip off their shoes or boots and wear paper booties to go from room to room. Davis said some of the regular tour goers simply bring along their own slippers in a bag and pull those on as they enter each home.
The co-chairs for the 2025 Holiday Home Tour are Nancy Molnar and Lisa Doherty. Davis said proceeds from the home tour this year will go towards projects at the River Park, uptown in the city and maintained by the club. They plant flowers, provided benches and recently built a berm and stone retention wall, hat cost $8,000, at the park.
“The park is in the heart of downtown and has the most beautiful views,” Davis said. “And we strategically placed all the benches so after people have dinner in town, they’ll get an ice cream and go sit in the park to enjoy those beautiful views.”
To reserve tickets for the upcoming home tour on Dec. 13 call Nancy at (586)904-1161 or Pat at (810)300-1200. Tickets can also be purchased in several locations in town, see the flyer for those locations. Tickets can also be purchased the night of the event at the Marine City Museum at 405 South Main Street in the city.
