Photo by Deb Gau Mrs. Claus welcomed visitors to the Curt and Brittany Gosser home in Lynd during the Lyon County Museum’s annual Holiday Home Tour

Local history and Christmas atmosphere came together over the weekend, at the Lyon County Museum’s annual Holiday Home tour.

More than 100 people toured decorated homes in Marshall and Lynd.

“It’s been really fun to get into the spirit of the holidays,” said Brittany Gosser. Gosser’s home was one of the stops on Sunday’s tour.

Homeowners also said it was good to help support the county museum.

“It’s exciting to be on the tour,” said Jill Kontz. “I think it’s a great thing for the museum.”

Museum director Jennifer Andries estimated around 111 people attended the tour.

“It was a good turnout,” Andries said. “This year, we were very fortunate that we had great weather.”

This year, the tour included the homes of Jim and Jill Kontz in Marshall, and Curt and Brittany Gosser and Jeremy and Polly Parrie in Lynd. Each of the three homes had a unique story.

While the Kontzes’ house in Marshall was built in 1999, it was designed to look like a Victorian home. Some of the details inside even paid tribute to local history. Jill Kontz said the china hutch in the dining room was a replica of a hutch in one of the large Victorian houses that once stood on Redwood Street in Marshall.

“I fell in love with the hutch,” Kontz said. She and her husband wanted to save a little piece of the building, she said.

“It’s part of Marshall’s history,” she said.

While the Redwood Street houses were demolished, some of their woodwork and the original china hutch are now part of the Heritage Room exhibit at the Lyon County Museum.

The Gosser home in Lynd dates back to 1898. Over the course of more than a century, the house was moved, added on to, and extensively remodeled. But the Gossers still have connections to the house’s history.

“My grandparents met in this house,” during a party held in 1949, Brittany Gosser said.

When the Gossers bought the house in 2020, they did their own renovations, which included adding an upstairs living room and remodeling the kitchen. The whole process took over a year, Brittany said.

“We definitely love living by the river, and by Camden State Park,” she said. “We bike to Camden as a family a lot.”

Jeremy and Polly Parrie’s home in Lynd was built around 1910, although it too has been added on to and remodeled over time. The Parrie family moved to Lynd from the Black Hills in South Dakota, and they liked that the house was surrounded by hills and woods, Polly Parrie said. It was an extra blessing to find out their new home was within walking or biking distance of a state park, she said.

One of the fun parts of the home tour was getting to meet visitors from the Lynd area, Parrie said.

“A lot of the people grew up here,” she said.

Among the guests at the Parries’ home Sunday were Gene and Barb Curwick. Gene actually grew up in the house before it was expanded and remodeled.

Of course, Christmas decorations and atmosphere were also a big part of the tour. Each home had its own style.

“I wanted to have a touch of plaid in each room,” Brittany Gosser said of the decorations at her family’s home.

The pattern helped give the decorations a rustic feeling, she said.

Jill Kontz said there were “probably 19 trees” spread around the Kontz house, as well as Nativity scenes calling to mind the reason for the Christmas holiday. While some of the decorated Christmas trees were more formal, the Kontz family also had fun with them. Jim Kontz decorated one tree on the basement level with fishing gear.

“I was like, ‘Look at all these extra lures,’ “ Jim said.

Then he got the inspiration to hang them like Christmas ornaments.

Polly Parrie said her family got in on the decorating, too.

“My teenage daughters helped me,” she said.

They also helped pick out a color scheme for the big Christmas tree standing in the family’s living room.

“My kids said, ‘We need more red on the tree,’ “ Parrie said.

They went with a mix of red and white ornaments.

The home tour was just one of the holiday events being held by the Lyon County Museum this year.

The museum’s 12th annual Indoor Christmas Tree Walk is going on during museum hours through Dec. 31.

The museum will also be holding a Holiday Fun Day from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. The event will feature holiday craft activities and treats, as well as a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus from 1-2 p.m.