Abilene's Historic Seelye Mansion is beautiful any time of year, but it's exceptionally beautiful during the holidays.
Here are five things you need to know when visiting the mansion during the holidays.
1. Construction was completed on this home 116 years ago!
The first dinner in the Seelye Mansion was on Christmas Day 1905 in honor of the 50th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Mason Seelye, Dr. A.B. Seelye's parents. Visit the Seelye Mansion and you can sit at the same table they dined at!
2. Nutcrackers galore!
The Seelye Mansion is exceptionally beautiful during the holiday season, but one donor noticed something missing and donated her entire collection of more than 750
nutcrackers for visitors to enjoy.
3. Poinsettias to Kansas
As the story is told, Mrs. Seelye was the first to bring the Poinsettia, a festive red plant, to Kansas. Today, the tradition continues and hundreds of Poinsettias fill the rooms of the mansion.
4. Trees, trees and more trees!
No room is complete without (at least) one Christmas Tree! If you think decorating your home for the holidays is a lot of work, imagine what great lengths the staff and volunteers at the Seelye Mansion take to decorate for the holidays. They even practice a little "voluntourism" with volunteers traveling from miles away to help with the enormous task.
5. 36 Years of Tours
And seeing all of this is possible because one man, Terry Tietjens, and his brother Jerry had a vision of restoring this beautiful old mansion and opening it up for tours. The first tour of the renovated Seelye Mansion was on Saturday, December 14, 1985 - 35 years ago!
