Mark your calendar for these special Q-C holiday events

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By Alma Gaul | Sunday, November 19, 2006 1:37 AM CST | () comments

Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES The home of Jim and Sherri Martin of Cordova, Ill., is one of six that will be open for tours on Saturday, Dec. 2, as a fundraiser for the Port Byron, Ill., First United Methodist Church. In addition to tours, the church’s Christmas Traditions event includes a luncheon and a sale of baked goods, greens and wood items. More on this event and home tours in Davenport’s Gold Coast and Muscatine, Iowa, will be found in next Sunday’s Home & Garden section.

Holiday decorating and entertaining tips will be featured Tuesday at the Quad-City Arts Festival of Trees “Home for the Holidays” luncheon at the Radisson Quad-City Plaza, Davenport.

You’ll hear ideas for invitations by Watermark Corners, Moline; gift-wrapping how-tos by Michaels, Davenport; and wine tidbits and new ideas in glassware by a magazine wine columnist.

Tickets are $30, which includes admission to the festival, continuing through Sunday (Nov. 26).

The festival features more than 100 designer trees, room vignettes, hand-crafted stockings and ornaments, gingerbread creations and a four-room house decorated in Christmas style by Saddlebrook Homes. It’s all at the RiverCenter, 136 E. 3rd St., Davenport. General admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors 60 and older and $3 for children 2-10.

For more information, call (563) 324-FEST (3378) or visit www.quadcityarts.com/festoftrees.

Following is a look at other Quad-City holiday events of special interest to “home bodies.”

If your organization is having an event that you would like listed in this calendar, please call Alma Gaul at 383-2324 or email to agaul@qctimes.com.

More information about the home tours will be found in next Sunday’s (Nov. 26) Home & Garden section.

Today through January: Antique German Christmas decoration display at the German American Heritage Center, 712 W. 2nd St., Davenport. The display includes feather trees, ornaments, Nativity scenes and a 12-foot tree decorated with mouth-blown ornaments.

Also on display in the center is a German-made Marklin HO scale model train.

In addition, the center’s annual Christkindlmarkt will open Friday, with items from Germany including nutcrackers, smokers, pyramids, cuckoo clocks, steins, music boxes and hand-blown glass ornaments.

Hours: 1-4 p.m. today and Tuesday. Beginning Friday, the center will be open 1-4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays until Dec. 22.

Shopping in the Christkindlmarkt is free; admission to the exhibits is $3 adults, $2 seniors, $1 children.

Information: (563) 322-8844.

Today: Final day of the three-day Festival of Wreaths at the Muscatine (Iowa) Art Center. Hours are 1-5 p.m., admission is free.

Information: (563) 263-8282.

Dec. 2: Tour of six homes in the Port Byron/Cordova, Ill., area as part of the Christmas Traditions fundraiser sponsored by First United Methodist Church, 9412 228th St. North, Port Byron. Hours of the tour are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $10.

Lunch will be served 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church, featuring Cheesy Potato with Ham Casserole and salad bar; tickets are $6.

Goodies for sale in the church include cookies; candies; baked goods; canned goods; fresh-cut evergreen wreaths; wood items such as benches, birdhouses, plant stands; and treats and accessories for dogs and cats in the “Paws and Claws Lair.”

Information: (309) 523-2244.

Dec. 2: Holiday Home Tour, 4-8 p.m., featuring eight Muscatine, Iowa, homes, plus cookies and coffee at the Muscatine Schools Administration Center. Cost is $10. The event is a fund-raiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Tickets are available at Carriage House Carpet One, 121 E. 2nd St., and Pro Hair Designs Salon & Spa, 214 Chestnut St., both Muscatine. They also may be purchased the day of the event at any of the homes or the school administration center, 2900 Mulberry Ave.

Information: (563) 263-1094.

Dec. 2-3: Home tour in the Gold Coast & Hamburg Historic District, Davenport, featuring five homes and the German American Heritage Center. Hours are 3-8 p.m. Dec. 2, and 2-6:30 p.m. Dec. 3. Cost: $8 in advance at Major Art and Hobby or the heritage center, both Davenport, or $10 the day of the event at any of the homes. Children under 12 are free with an adult ticket.

Information: www.davenport goldcoast.org or (563) 322-8911.

Dec. 2-3, 9-10, 16-17: Conservatory at Vander Veer Botanical Park, Davenport, will be open extended hours, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., for its annual Poinsettia and Lights display. Dec. 3 will have special music.

Information: (563) 326-7818.

Dec. 3: 19th century Christmas celebration open house at Deere-Wiman House and Butterworth Center, both historic Deere family homes in Moline. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Free. Features Victorian decorations, living history volunteers, performances by the Moline Boys Choir, make-and-take activities and a visit from Santa. The homes are at 11th Avenue and 8th Street.

Information: (309) 765-7970 or www.butterworthcenter.org

Dec. 3: Winter in Bloom celebration, 1-5 p.m. Hauberg Center, Rock Island. Free. Service clubs decorate each room of the historic mansion. There also will be carriage rides from 2-4 p.m., a visit from Santa and children’s activities.

Information: (309) 732-2132.

Dec. 3: Victorian Christmas Tea, beginning at 1 p.m. at the Quad-City Botanical Center, Rock Island. Germaine I. Bucholz of Greenville, Mich., will portray Queen Victoria’s life and the mourning of her late husband in the early 1800s. Refreshments include tea, hot cocoa, coffee, cookies. Cost is $5, plus admission, which is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $2 for youth 8-12, $1 for children 2-7.

Information: (309) 794-0991, extension 27; www.qcgardens.com

Dec. 7: Holiday luncheon at 11:30 a.m. at a private home, decorated for the holidays. Sponsored by Friends of Vander Veer, but open to the public. There usually are 12 homes on the tour; you can pick which one you want to visit, or ask to be assigned. Cost is $35.

Information: (563) 323-3298

Dec. 10: Tour of homes in Geneseo, Ill., featuring six holiday-decorated homes. Hours are 12:30-4 p.m. Cost is $10. Tickets and directions on the day of the event may be obtained at Klavohn’s Furniture, about quarter-mile off Interstate 80.

Information: (309) 944-0300, extension 114.

Dec. 10: Chocolate Festival, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Quad-City Botanical Center, Rock Island. Information on the history and process of making chocolate throughout the day. At 1 p.m. there will be a presentation on pairing coffee with chocolate and other desserts. Vendors will share samples. Cost is $10, plus admission, which is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $2 for youth 8-12, $1 for children 2-7.

Information: (309) 794-0991, extension 27; www.qcgardens.com

Dec. 16: Open house at Rivermont Collegiate preparatory school, 1821 Sunset Drive, Bettendorf, former Joseph W. Bettendorf mansion, 4-7 p.m., with guided tours of the holiday-decorated ground floor and refreshments. Free.

Information: (563) 359-1366, extension 302.