The Historic Odessa Foundation welcomes the holidays with a blaze of light and a lot of storytelling.
The historic houses managed by the foundation come alive with holiday lights again this year. Debbie Buckson is the group’s executive director.
“It's pretty incredible to see the Corbit-Sharp House, a National Historic Landmark outlined in magnificent white light. It's just really quite an extraordinary picture," she said.
Buckson adds the holidays are when they step aside from their usual mission of historical interpretation to delve into the world of classic fiction. This year, the Corbit-Sharp House is displaying scenes from J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy.
“You're going to meet Peter. Wendy, Nana, the boys, Captain Hook. Tick Tock, Smee. It's great," she said. "It's so much fun. We use our wonderful 18th century collection of American decorative arts to recreate these vignettes in each of the rooms.”
This year, there is also a collection of more than two dozen "story trees," decorated by schools and community groups.
"We provide the tree and the lights. They pick their book and then they create a theme for their tree," Buckson said. "This is an effort to promote literacy. It fits very nicely with our storybook house, and we do this every year.“
The Historic Odessa Foundation’s holiday programming kicks off with "Odessa Lights up the Night" this Saturday from 4 to 7 pm. Proceeds help the foundation to provide financial assistance to Title I schools visit Odessa and see their collection.
