Beneath the bustling culture of NYC lies a quiet link to the past, seen primarily through historical architecture dotting the city’s modern landscape.

The Merchant’s House Museum, built in 1882, is one such locale that provides today’s New Yorkers with a glimpse into their fellow ancestors’ livelihoods. This holiday season, the Museum is hosting artist Deb O’Nair’s collection of retro Christmas memorabilia in From Candlelight to Bubble Light: a 1950s Christmas in a 1850s House.

The Merchant’s House Museum is the only surviving nineteenth-century family home in the city. Dubbed the Merchant’s House because of the upper middle-class merchant family that lived there, the museum has remained completely intact due to diligent upkeep and its declaration as a National Historic Landmark. The house was actually occupied until 1933 when resident Gertrude Tredwell, born and raised in the house, died. Three years later, the house was designated a museum and opened to the public.

Today, visitors have the opportunity to marvel at the beautifully preserved 19th century rooms and unique Greek revival architecture. Not to mention the possibility of encountering the ghost of Tredwell herself, who it has been said is rumored to walk the halls, guarding her family home.

With the advent of the holiday season, however, the museum has taken on an entirely different style: 1950s Americana.

“[O’Nair] has an annual [Christmas] party,” Executive Director Margaret Halsey Gardiner said, “and she talks about all of her vintage decorations and her white tree and her tinsel tree–and all of a sudden we just hatched this wonderful idea to have her decorate the house as a 1950s Christmas in a 1850s home.”

On December 14, the Museum hosted a retro “Holly Jolly” cocktail party to fully bask in the atmosphere of a 1950s Christmas. And what was Gardiner’s favorite part? Undeniably, it had to be the food.

“Our hors d’oeuvres were very 1950sish,” Gardiner said. “[They were] very delicious too!”

O’Nair, who has always been an avid collector of vintage items, redecorated the museum by thinking carefully about what its prior inhabitants, the Tredwells, would have done.

“What would they possibly be doing if they were full of Christmas cheer in the 1950s,” O’Nair said. “They were upper middle-class and could afford quite an abundance of decorative items. What would they be doing in those rooms and how would they present that?”

The result is a surprisingly well-mixed blend between 1850s grandeur and 1950s Americana.

Entering the front lobby, visitors are greeted by a welcoming committee of glowing Santas and snowmen.

“It’s like a little Christmas welcoming committee,” Gardiner said.

The amazingly preserved kitchen now boasts vintage Christmas cookie jars and utensils suggesting a ghostly cookie-making party. Old holiday records decorate the bright study room while holiday mugs, tablecloth and a miniature tinsel tree liven up the dining room. The large artificial tree in the front parlor ties together the house’s retro holiday cheer.

“In the ‘50s and into the ‘60s there was such a burst of available items being made in Japan,” O’Nair said. “After World War II we built all their factories and they built all our tsotsis [knick-knacks].”

However, though tinsel trees and glowing Santas seem to veer away from the museum’s usual mission of displaying a forgotten nineteenth century age, the exhibition hasn’t forgotten its roots; as the museum’s holiday tour reminds visitors, much of the modern 1950s “bubble light” Christmas tradition stem from the 1850s.

“There were a lot of traditions that began in the 1850s,” Gardiner said. “For example, the Christmas tree, hanging stockings for Santa, or Christmas carols. What you’ll find is that these [traditions] are all expanded and embellished until you get to the 1950s, when they’re kind of over-the-top and over-the-moon.”

Stop by the Merchant’s House Museum for a tour of the exhibition every Monday, Thursday and Friday at 2 p.m. until January 9. For more information and to purchase advanced tickets, go to merchantshouse.org.

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