Goodbye to guests by the busful
Sandersfeld, Culver host their final holiday open houseWORTHINGTON — One evening last week, a motorcoach pulled up in front of 1515 Okabena St., and a bunch of people went inside. A while later, they departed, another bus pulled up, and the process was repeated.
By: Beth Rickers, Worthington Daily Globe
- Lights to delight
- Sandersfeld
- Statue
WORTHINGTON — One evening last week, a motorcoach pulled up in front of 1515 Okabena St., and a bunch of people went inside. A while later, they departed, another bus pulled up, and the process was repeated.
The house on Okabena Street is home to Helen Sandersfeld, who opens her door every year to about 100 guests with the help of her daughter, Carol Culver. The passengers on the bus are residents of local care, senior and assisted living facilities, being treated to a special holiday tour of lights by Reading Bus Lines.
“We started doing it nine years ago,” Helen recalled about how the holiday open house started, “right after my husband (Clarence) died. He loved having people around, especially during the holidays. We always had the church choir Christmas parties here.”
Helen and Carol took note of the bus passing by on Okabena Street.
“We always noticed that the bus would go by here real slow, and one time it even stopped out front,” Helen continued. “So Carol ran out and said, ‘Next time, stop and come in and have some cookies and cider.’”
The Sandersfeld house was already an attraction on the tour because of its highly decorated state for the holiday season. Carol, who lives next door, festoons the house inside and out, from top to bottom, adding to the decorations each year. She especially enjoys the lighting aspects of the holiday displays and has hooked up speakers outside so holiday music plays to complement the lights.
“Everything now is on remotes, timers, photo cells,” she explained. “Just on this one pole I have three switches. I’ve been very lucky all these years. I’ve never blown anything up — yet.”
“Every year, she just wracks her brain about what she can do different,” Helen said.
“This year, the bird tree is new, the poinsettia tree is new … the fireplaces are new, there’s more (decoration) on the ceiling,” detailed Carol, who counted eight Christmas trees in the residence.
“And my angels are new,” added Helen, referring to a large display of collectible angel figurines atop the dining room fireplace. “The angels are my favorite, along with my statuary.”
All the décor — and the house’s historic setting, having been built in 1898 — make it a perfect locale for the open house. After nine years, the two women have established a hosting routine, but they recalled the fiasco of their first such event.
“The first year we did it, we were stupid,” Carol admitted. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I wore black velvet pants, a sleeveless velvet top and high heels.”
Shortly after the first bus arrived, Carol realized that some of the passengers had opted not to come inside and were waiting patiently on the bus.
“So it’s 20-some degrees, and I’m running out there, trying to figure out how to get cookies and cider out there to them,” she continued. “We got some elves after that.”
This year’s designated elves, Cindy Brunk and Darcy Poppema, were in charge of transporting the refreshments out to the bus, providing welcome assistance for Helen and Carol. They also get food donated by Wal-Mart. But even with those helpful hands and financial assistance, the event has gotten to be too much, and they’ve decided to hang up their hostess hats.
“I should be ON the bus,” asserted Helen. “In January, I’m going to be 87. It’s so hard for me to walk, my feet and legs are getting so bad. I have one bad eye, one bad ear. And Carol has some problems with arthritis. It’s time to slow down.”
“We enjoy this a lot,” Carol said. “We just don’t enjoy getting ready for it.”
Even though they’ve made the decision to discontinue the bus parties, both Helen and Carol are reluctant to stop the Christmas displays altogether. Much of the décor remains up throughout the year, because so much has accumulated that there’s not enough room in storage.
“To us, Christmas is 365 days a year,” said Helen.
“It’s taken years to get this stuff up here; it’ll take years to take it all down,” reflected Carol. “I built five shelves (using wooden doors) down in the basement to use as storage, and it’s not enough.”
Next year, however, they may start scaling back since there won’t be the large influx of guests to take it all in.
“We’re going to miss the bus people,” said Helen, regret evident in her voice.
Tags: news, worthington, bus, christmas, sandersfeld, culver, lights, house
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