The Twelve Days of Christmas, which begin on the 25th of December and end Jan. 6 with the Feast of the Epiphany, hold special meaning for Willa Boze and her daughter, Sharon Williams. In addition to an entire tree decorated with Wedgewood ornaments depicting a partridge in a pear tree, three French hens, two turtle doves and so forth, the home is a showplace of decorative art collections celebrating the season of peace and goodwill.
Just as the task of trimming the home began months before Christmas Day, the festive atmosphere the women have created is enjoyed long after presents are opened and carols are sung.
Willa Boze and her former husband moved from Long Island to Maryland in 1981. They found the Clarksville home of their dreams soon after, in 1982, and even though the couple divorced, Willa and two of her three children still remain in the two-story, 3,000-square foot, Colonial-style home.
With all of the new home's space, Willa Boze, a computer information systems teacher, began collecting in earnest. With a living room, dining room, large eat-in kitchen, study, family room, a front hall and side hall on the first level, her palate seemed limitless for both seasonal and yearlong decoration.
"I love hanging things on walls," she said, referring to a kitchen where 12 mahogany framed porcelain plates feature hand-painted flowers, one for each month of the year. From their spot over oak cabinets, they provide warmth in a country kitchen setting as do tiny shadow boxes filled with collectible spoons and thimbles.
"We store a lot of our regular pieces in the basement to make room for the Christmas decorations," said daughter Sharon Williams, an assistant office manager for a doctor.
Of the 10 decorated trees displayed throughout the home's first floor, Williams calls attention to her favorite, a full-size tree in a corner of the living room bearing the brightly colored bulbs of the Waterford Heirloom collection.
At the opposite end of the living room, two smaller trees exhibit collections of Swarovski crystal and brass and the Wedgewood 12 Days balls.
In the dining room, under a magnificent Swarovski crystal chandelier, the oak double pedestal table is set with Waterford crystal and Spode china in the Christmas pattern. The table's theme is carried onto the room's three trees - one decorated with miniature Spode dinnerware, one in Waterford crystal and one of the Lenox Holly theme.
The warmth of the home's library is derived from dark burgundy leather furniture and a cherry bookcase filled with Lenox Christmas pieces that include several music boxes.
Along a hall decked with garland and red holly berries, poinsettia plants are on each step of the staircase.
The family room, with its great brick fireplace and beamed ceiling, provides the perfect backdrop for Willa Boze's Lenox Mistletoe Village collection of lighted houses, shops, a pair of churches, a school and a train station.
The fantasy world, much of it reminiscent of Christmases past, that Boze and Williams have fashioned in their own dream Colonial delights the many visitors who celebrate with the women throughout the season.
"We get so much joy having people over," Ms. Boze said. "This is, indeed, a Christmas house."
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Making a dream home Dream element: Willa Boze's 3,000-square-foot Colonial-style home sits high off a wide road in the Clarksville, Howard County community of Johns Hopkins Farms. Houses in this upscale neighborhood are built far apart from each other, allowing for a spacious country feel. The home was built in 1982 on 1.5 acres of landscaped property. Willa Boze and her family are the original owners.
Design Inspiration: Taking her cue from large rooms, generous floor, ceiling and window moldings, huge country kitchen and a rustic family room with beamed ceilings, Boze has filled the home with Colonial-style furnishings from various Ethan Allen collections in cherry wood and oak. The softness of Ethan Allen fabrics - draperies and cornices that match wallpaper and upholstered living room sofa and love seat - contrast with leather furniture groupings in both the study and family room.
Personal touch: The home's holiday decor and her year-round furnishings are a tribute to Boze's patient pursuit of decorative art collections purchased over the years from sources that include outlets, department stores, mail order and eBay. "My feeling is to just buy, and figure out what to do with [the pieces] later," she said.