By TERRI GLAZER • Photography by BRANDALL LAUGHLIN
Oxford’s Holiday House Tour blends seasonal splendor with a powerful purpose—supporting Doors of Hope Transition Ministries
Last December, six Oxford homeowners opened their doors to help Lafayette County families at risk of and experiencing homelessness. The annual Holiday House Tour is the primary fundraising event for Doors of Hope Transition Ministries, says Mary Margaret Andrews, executive director of the organization.
The event is highly anticipated, as the group chooses a different neighborhood to spotlight each year. Attendees can’t help but catch the spirit of the season as they tour some of Oxford’s most unique and beautiful residences, decorated for the holidays on the first Saturday in December. This year’s event is scheduled for December 6, 10 am–3 pm. Tickets are available in advance at holidayhousetouroxford.com or at the gate on event day.
Since its founding in 2011, Doors of Hope has provided assistance to over 3,000 people. The 501C3 organization employs two main programs to guide homeless and at-risk families toward self-reliance and stability through a holistic, individualized approach that includes life-skills training, mentoring, and supportive housing.
Andrews explains, “Doors of Hope helps families that are at risk of eviction and homelessness in Lafayette County, and we do that in a couple of different ways. The emergency assistance program provides one-time aid to people at immediate risk of being evicted. They just need help to kind of get them back on their feet. Our Housing in Place Program is more intensive, four to six months. We work with these families weekly. They usually have quite a bit of debt, and so we want to pay their rent during the time they’re in the program, so they can pay down their debt. By the end of the program, they’re debt-free and hopefully have a little money in the bank.”
Doors of Hope provides much more than monetary assistance, however. Both the group’s programs include an educational component. Participants receive financial counseling and guidance with employment, life skills, education, and medical needs. “Our goal is to help them understand what they need to do differently to keep from getting back into the same situation. Clients in the Housing in Place Program attend classes and meet one-on-one with a financial counselor every week,” says Andrews.
For more information, visit holidayhousetouroxford.com
Timeless Design, Festive Flair
The Alias Home
Several years ago, Margaret Anne and William Alias found the perfect place for them and their two young daughters. The wooded hilltop lot held a 1950s-era Tudor Revival home, which they set out to renovate with the help of Frank Tindall, a Delta-born architectural designer now based in Oxford. After a series of renderings, the couple realized a renovation wasn’t feasible. They razed the house and started from scratch, instructing Tindall to recreate favorite features and spaces from the original building.
Construction was completed in 2020, and the Alias family moved into their “forever” home that spring. Known as “The Oaks,” the residence pays homage to its predecessor but is built for today’s way of living. Custom features like cloister vaults, barrel ceilings, and Venetian plaster walls give the home distinctive character.
This new home had taller ceilings and larger rooms than their previous place, so Alias started fresh when selecting new furnishings, opting for pieces well suited to a grander scale and in a fresh color palette. Tasteful neutral tones and muted colors fill the spaces, creating an ambiance of easy elegance. A handsome study bathed top to bottom in rich mocha makes a dramatic counterpoint.
“For our Christmas decorations, I’m drawn to deer and trees, and I think that’s appropriate for our home,” Alias explains. “Our lot has tons of trees, and there are so many deer around the area.”
Each year, the Aliases enjoy a large fresh Christmas tree in the living room and a flocked one in the family room. The look of the main tree is stately and traditional. Alias has been collecting ornaments to match the room’s palette since moving into the home. Soft rose tones and muted metallics combine to integrate the tree seamlessly into its setting. She describes the second tree as “more youthful and fun.” Covered in faux snow and dressed up with big, brightly colored balls and Christopher Radko ornaments, it lends a gleeful element to the space. A pair of hot pink flocked deer sit atop a console nearby, taking the lively mood up another notch.
The team from Oxford Floral coordinates the home’s holiday look, both outside and in, each year.
Heart and Home: A Renovated Retreat
The Howorth Home
To say that Dorothy and Tom Howorth’s house has been renovated would be an understatement. Their beautiful home and the 20 acres that surround it bear hardly any resemblance to the modest, ranch-style place on less than an acre that they bought in 1995. As an architect, Tom could see the potential and loved the setting that had the feel of the country despite its location only a mile from Oxford’s square. While raising their three children there, the couple completely transformed the house, replacing the exterior’s vinyl siding and multicolored brick veneer with cypress board-and-batten, adding a new living room, raising the ceilings in the primary suite and the kitchen, and enclosing the garage for additional living space. Over time, they also acquired surrounding property, including the house next door, and added a pool and pool house. The landscape has also been revamped with the addition of native plants that create a habitat for pollinators, songbirds, and other wildlife.
“While we saved the original house, it’s the things we have surrounded ourselves with, the landscape expansion, and the changes we have made to the house that have made it our home,” says Tom Howorth. Those things include antiques and art collected through Dorothy’s career in those fields. The style could be described as Southern eclectic; traditional antiques, folk art, and clean-lined modern pieces coexist beautifully. The Howorths are quick to credit Dorothy’s cousin Sam Blount, a well-known interior designer in New York, for helping them decorate over the years and for the Holiday House Tour. Oxford designer Baylor Pillow also assisted with exterior decorations for the event.
Tom explains, “We have been familiar with Doors of Hope since it began. [The house tour] is a fundraiser for a cause we support.” He and Dorothy were happy to participate when their neighborhood was featured last year. “It was great to be able to open our home to so many people who have never seen it or who saw it before we bought it,” he adds. “It isn’t a showcase, but it is very personal to Dorothy and me, and most of the visitors who toured it understood and appreciated that quality.”
Tradition with a Twist
The Morrison Home
Missy Morrison knew just what she wanted when she and her husband, Mike, set out to build their home. In fact, she sketched the floor plan herself. Today, their British Arts and Crafts–style residence sits like a jewel at the top of Oxford’s Cullen Road. Above all, the house is a beloved gathering place for the couple’s children and grandchildren, with a layout and thoughtful custom features designed to accommodate the family.
The house was a perfect choice for the 2024 Doors of Hope House Tour, and Morrison was more than pleased to support the effort to help needy families in the local area. She had served as a tour docent on previous installments of the event, so when the organization selected her neighborhood and asked her to open her home, naturally, she agreed.
A white brick exterior and bright white walls inside create a clean, light-filled backdrop for Morrison’s decor. “My style is kind of everything,” she says, and indeed, the home is a fresh take on traditional. “My mother had an antique store when I was growing up, and so I have a mix of a lot of contemporary and a lot of old things.”
With its exposed brick wall and ceiling beams, the family room is an inviting place for the clan to gather. Soft, neutral fabrics on the sofas and chairs allow pieces from the Morrisons’ art collection to take center stage. During the holiday season, the room is home to a classic Christmas tree as well as a colorful grouping of small glass trees that add an element of whimsy. On the coffee table, a huge Christmas cactus shows off soft pink blossoms right on schedule.
Morrison places similar nods to the season all around her home, from the front door to the charming children’s bunk room, where garland and ribbons remind the grandchildren that Santa’s on his way.
A Midcentury Marvel
The Richardson Home
“My home was built by Frank and Marge Peddle in 1959 as a retirement home for Marge’s mother, Mrs. Marjorie Wallace,” says Randy Richardson. Designed by Clarksdale’s Brewer and Skewes, the architectural firm that was also responsible for Tad Smith Coliseum and the Twin Towers, the midcentury modern home was quite a novelty in Oxford at the time it was built, he adds.
Mrs. Wallace’s granddaughter, Laura Peddle, eventually inherited the original one-bedroom house. During the years she lived there with her family, she enclosed a porch and solarium to create two additional bedrooms and a second bath. Shortly after Richardson bought the home in 1993, he added a garage and a solarium, bringing the structure to the form it has today while keeping its unique character intact. Its clean lines, right angles, and low-pitched roof are hallmarks of mid-century style.
Richardson turned to Oxford interior designer Resa Randle to help prepare for the Holiday House Tour. He says, “For Christmas, I always decorate with at least a tree and wreath, but Resa helped me get ready for the tour and added something for every room—flowers, garland, table settings, etc.”
The Holiday House Tour was a gratifying experience for Richardson, who says he was honored to have been asked to open his home. “My favorite memory of the day was receiving so many nice comments from the people who came through the house.” He was delighted to help raise funds for Doors of Hope, an organization he believes is invaluable to the area. “I think there is a great need to help those struggling to establish a safe place to live,” he says.
Happy House, Holiday Cheer
The Yoste Home
“It was the most special day. I still look back on it and smile,” says Julie Yoste of the 2024 Holiday House Tour. She was happy to open her home to support Doors of Hope and received an unexpected blessing as she did.
“Oxford is a small town, but it’s getting bigger all the time,” she says. “I talked to so many people all day long! I met lots of new people, and I also got to see old friends I hadn’t connected with in a long time. It was so much fun, and it really got me in the mood for Christmas.”
Yoste loves the home she shares with her husband, Geoffrey, on a large lot not far from the Oxford Square, but admits she wasn’t initially sold on the idea of a ranch-style house. Over the past two decades, the couple has renovated, added on, and molded the place into the perfect nest for their family. “We knocked out walls, we raised the roof—we are rooted here. We call it ‘the Happy House,’” she says. “I just want people to come in and feel comfortable. It’s very open.”
The updated cottage/ranch exudes comfort and a sense of casual elegance. The decor is an effortless blend of old and new. Yoste explains, “I have pops of fun, newer things, but I love old, too. You will find me at thrift shops and estate sales. I love just getting old pieces and reworking them. And family pieces from my mom; artwork from my mother-in-law. I like things that you can’t find everywhere. They have a story,” Yoste says.
Through her work at Oxford Floral Company, Yoste is responsible for creating holiday magic in many Oxford homes, and she loves embellishing her own with treasured and personal pieces collected over the years. Much like the year-round decor, her seasonal decorations are a melange of traditional and modern. Classic Lenox holiday china and fir garlands look right at home along with festive accents of pink and orange.
“Everyone’s house shines at Christmas,” says Yoste, adding that she can’t wait for the 2025 Holiday House Tour. Although she will be an attendee rather than a host, she understands from experience how memorable the day will be for the families who open their homes in support of Doors of Hope this year.
A Southern Classic with Architectural Elegance
The Zook Home
Architect Frances Flautt Zook’s Oxford house is a complete departure from her previous home in Atlanta. “It was a very strongly marked midcentury modern house. Because I had done that, I wanted something different here,” she says. Inspired by classic Southern homes, Zook designed her family’s new place with a more traditional aesthetic. “Unpainted brick, because that was familiar to me growing up,” says the Greenwood native.
Feeling fortunate to have found an in-town vacant lot with a private feel, Zook selected Samuels Construction to build the house. After a year-long construction process, she moved in in 2023.
Although her new home’s style is more conventional, Zook was able to blend many of her existing furnishings into its decor quite successfully. “I like to integrate modern and traditional together, because I have collected antiques over the years and have inherited some antique furniture from family members. We love remembering those from the past; there are a lot of memories there.”
Zook says she designed her home intentionally to flow from “active” spaces like her entry hall gallery with a rosy red ceiling and lots of art to more quiet areas. The dining room just off the entry is very white and has only a single painting and a tapestry.
Her decorations for the Holiday House Tour had a natural feel. With help from her friend Katherine Webb, owner of Oxford’s Farmstead Florals, Zook created a look centered around items from Farmstead, greenery from her own backyard, and fruit. Fresh garland accented with ribbons and jingle bells on the exterior brought a festive mood to the home’s facade.
“Doors of Hope is a really fantastic group,” says Zook. “When they asked me to do the house tour, I agreed, because I knew which neighbors were going to participate. Every house was so different that I felt like it was a good combination of architecture to show.”
