The Holiday Home Tour is a Christmas tradition down here in New Orleans. This was my first year joining and I was very surprised at the amount of people that attended. New Orleans has some amazing and extremely expensive homes that some of us would only dream of living in. The Holiday Home Tour is most people’s only chance at getting a glimpse at what is inside these fantastic homes. This year was the 41^st annual Holiday Home Tour. Year after year they have a different set of houses on the map, so you could go every year and never see the same house twice. Of course, each of these houses was decorated for Christmas, so they are even more spectacular than normal.

Here’s how it works:

• You purchase your ticket ahead of time or at the door (unless it sells out)
• You pick up your pre-paid ticket at a central location
  • This is where you receive a list of the houses with a map
• Then you are free to start your tour at any house on the list

Unlike other tours where the tour travels together as a group, the Holiday Home Tour is more of an individual roaming tour. This means that you are able to stroll from house to house at your own pace. Also, even though it starts at 10 a.m., you can take your time showing up. Personally, I tend to be running late to events like this, so it was a breath of fresh air to be able to show up on my time. Everyone knows the holidays can be crazy, but the Holiday Home Tour is definitely a change of pace in the middle of the madness. Since the tour is from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., you have plenty of time to stroll through each house and do a nice sit down lunch wherever you please. We stopped at GG’s Dine-O-Rama on Magazine Street where I filled up on some classic New Orleans shrimp and grits.

After some much needed lunch, we were ready to finish off the rest of the houses. As you stroll from house to house, there are volunteers that welcome you and provide a small amount of background historical information of each house. Pretty much all of these houses had gorgeous staircases, expensive artwork, islands in the kitchen, and a pool in the courtyard. Personally, my favorite room to inspect was the kitchen. With massive refrigerators and appliances galore, each house had a kitchen that every aspiring dietician dreams to have one day.

The Holiday Home Tour is sponsored by the Preservation Resource Center. This year, there were seven houses to visit and a bonus house at the end. The bonus house was actually a school called McGehee. I was obsessed with the little vegetable garden that the children planted.

Overall, the Holiday Home Tour was very enjoyable. The houses were amazing, the pace was leisurely, and the weather was beautiful. After seeing the collection of houses this year, I can't wait to see the line up for next year!