Celebrate Yuletide, 'Gatsby' style at Georgia's elegant southern style Tate House

A splendid Georgia mansion built of rare pink marble, known as "Etowah Pink Marble" is decked out for the holidays.
Through Dec. 21, the Tate House offers holiday tours, with a delightful luncheon or hors d'oeuvres presentation. 

Every room of the 2916 nmansion is decked out for the holidays, with
gorgeous trees, meticulously decorated, and each room in a color theme. 

STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS
PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER

STELLAR CREATION OF a land baron, philanthropist and tycoon, Tate House -- "the Pink Palace" -- is known throughout the south for its gorgeous pink marble patina and its exquisite Renaissance revival style.

It is a popular wedding venue and one of the most photographed privately owned homes in the south. It is indeed grand and glorious.

During a recent family reunion and birthday celebration, we discovered it is particularly beautiful in this yuletide season, elegantly decked out in glittering holiday glory.

Can you spot the imposters?  Cookie and her sister Misha
join carolers in the Tate House for a colorful tour and sing. 

During the yule season, nearly two dozen major rooms are lovingly decorated by volunteers and presented in exquisite form with Christmas trees, gifts, carolers, presents and dining tables ready for eager guests. The detail is spectacular.

COLONER SAM TATE built the 19,000 square foot marble mansion to show off his success and to showcase the enormous vein of rose-colored marble from the quarry behind his house. 

Elegance is the order of the day. One enters, feeling part of a bygone era. The gracefully curved stairway evokes F. Scott Fitzgerald and "The Great Gatsby," when the Jazz Age ushered in style and opulence.  The wealthy lived the high life, with lavish furnishings, free-flowing champagne and indulgence of every whim. 

One of the Tate House Christmas trees boasts more than 1,000 ornaments.

Tate's affection for Italian and English classical styles popular in the U.S. in the 1920s created a beautiful home which sadly fell to neglect.  It is once again gorgeous -- thanks to restoration efforts of Holbrook Properties.  Lois Holbrook and daughter Marsha Mann sunk a fortune into restoring the stately mansion and gardens, last occupied by immediate family in 1955. Colonel Sam, who never married, died in 1938 at age 78, 12 years after moving into the home. The home was neglected for two decades, and for a time unoccupied, until an Arizona woman, Ann Laird, purchased it and began a painstaking restoration.

OUR FAMILY event combined a reunion and travel-writing expedition with fashion, food and holiday finery. Like the other guests, we appreciated the opportunity Tate House offers to celebrate the season.

Tate House has a lovely dining room
for tasty lunch or appetizer parties.

 We joined others dressed in holiday style, treating family and friends to a lovely bistro lunch, complemented by historical highlights and tour.  Our party drove about 90 minutes from my sister's home in Duluth, Ga. It's only a 15-minute drive from Big Canoe, Ga., through a lovely wooded part of the state.

The Cosgriffe siblings at Tate House, from left, Christene (Cookie), Patrick,
Misha, Rick and Olivia.  The famous 1920s home is built on land acquired
by the Tate family in 1834. The home is a popular Georgia wedding venue.

Among its other kudos, the Tate House is on the National Register of Historic Places and was named one of the "must see houses in Georgia" by Georgia Magazine. 

If you can't make the holiday tours (a delicious bistro lunch or evening candlelight music tour), the Tate House offers breakfast, lunch and dessert tours during the rest of the year, for reasonable prices.

An all-inclusive wedding package is available for brides looking for an old-fashioned elegant southern wedding experience.

To book a tour later, or during the holidays -- a bistro lunch or candlelight music tour -- call 770 735-3122 or go to www.tatehouse.com 

Horton Grand Theatre hosts a lively adaptation of the classic
"Miracle on 34th Street," a radio play adaptation in San Diego.

UP NEXT:

Erin and Gary Lewis founded San
 Diego Musical Theatre because of a
life-long love of the musical. The
The current show  is a  well done
 live musical radio play
 adaptation of the holiday classic,
 "Miracle on 34th Street."
,
 

Continuing in the spirit of all things yuletide, San Diego Musical Theatre presents a delightful musical, "Miracle on 34th Street:  A Live Musical Radio Play." The adaptation of the classic feel-good film is superbly directed and won a standing ovation Thursday. Remember the 1947 film?  A kindly bearded man is hired in an emergency at Macy's Department Store when the regular Santa shows up to work drunk. The real meaning of Christmas -- love and belief -- is delightfully told. Call 858-560-5740 for tickets, or go to www.sdmt.org. Remember to explore, learn and live, and catch us weekends for lively arts-travel insights and features.