Cummings paints Pickett Ornament
Governor and First Lady Haslam will host their second annual “Tennessee’s Home for the Holidays,” an Open House event available to all Tennesseans to tour the holiday decorations at the executive residence during the first two weeks in December.
This year’s holiday décor theme, “Tennessee Music,” was accomplished through partnerships with the Museum of Appalachia in East Tennessee, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Middle Tennessee, and Stax Museum in West Tennessee. Authentic pieces and reproductions from the museums’ collections were incorporated into the holiday decorations to represent Tennessee’s rich musical heritage.
Tennessee schools also contributed to the holiday decorations at the Tennessee Residence by creating ornaments to feature on sixteen trees located in Conservation Hall. To continue the music theme, elementary, middle, and high school students created ornaments representing their favorite holiday songs, gospel music, patriotic music, and the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” Elvis Presley. Tennessee’s colleges, universities, technical schools, community colleges were represented with ornaments for a higher Education Tree.
A County Ornament Tree, decorated with ornaments representing all of Tennessee’s 95 counties, was also incorporated into this year’s holiday décor. To create the County Ornament Tree, a local artist in each county was selected and asked to paint an ornament representing their home county, displayed in the main foyer of the residence.
Evelyn Cummings painted an ornament that displayed Huddleston Knob, Cordell Hull Birthplace and Dale Hollow Lake in Pickett County. The Byrdstown Senior Center will be taking a trip to see Evelyn's ornament as well as all of the county ornaments and other decorations on display.
“This is Tennessee’s home, and Bill and I feel blessed to share it with visitors from across the state to enjoy holiday decorations,” said Mrs. Haslam. “We are thankful to the local artists, volunteers, museums, and school children across the state who helped make this year’s Home for the Holidays so special.”
Open home tours at the Tennessee Residence will be held Monday through Friday, Dec. 3-14 and on Saturday, Dec. 8.
For more information about “Tennessee’s Home for the Holidays,” please visit www.tn.gov/firstlady.