In tenor tones, Tim McKee sang, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” filling an antique kitchen with holiday cheer at the Matthew Curtiss House, 44 Main Street. Welcoming guests to enjoy an open house at the mid-1700s saltbox decorated with a Christmas tree in the formal dining room and cookies and cider in the kitchen, docents walked guests through a little bit of history and a little holiday at the Historical Society’s open house on Sunday, December 8.

Dressed for Christmas in colonial America, junior docent Matthew Calorossi stepped toward the evergreen set before a window in the dining room. Pinecones, wax candles, and ribbons were among the simple decorations hung from the needled branches. According to literature available at the house that day, “Christmas trees were not a part of American Christmas celebrations until the 1800s. The first documented Christmas tree in New England was in 1838 at the home of a German immigrant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.”

Several years later, the custom of decorating a tree caught on in the “English speaking world,” the literature states. Other traditions such as building ginger-bread houses would follow.

Across the hall and through the main entrance, docent Elizabeth Isles smoothed the apron over her long skirt and leaned toward a writing desk to lift a large bell. The “loud” bell could have been a school bell, she said, and was likely used for communication. “It could signal the start of school, lunch break, etcetera.”

Another flyer made available to guests offered a history of 44 Main Street, saying the Matthew Curtiss House “is an example of the standard early Connecticut house, the central-chimney type developed in the 1600s and built, with variations, throughout the 1700s and even after 1800. With a long roof in the back, it qualifies as a leanto house, commonly called a saltbox.”