A Christmas dreamland in the St. Clair district
IT’S THE DAY AFTER the neighbourhood Christmas party and David Wood only looks a tad tired.
Hosting the party is a tradition that Wood and his partner Tom Couchman started 14 years ago when they moved into the St. Clair area.
“It was always my dream to live here,” Wood says in the entranceway to their 90-year-old house. “We wanted to get to know our neighbours, so the party was our perfect introduction.”
This year 97 people enjoyed the food and the Christmas wonderland that Wood and Couchman created. It began brilliantly in the sparkling living room of their Tudor style house, which sits in the St. Clair Avenue Heritage Conservation District.
The glow starts at the Christmas tree, decorated with 3,000 lights and 850 glass ornaments. The theme most everywhere is red and gold and lots of it. A garland that loops around the fireplace mantle and built in bookcases at one end of the living room, is put together painstakingly each year. The lights are coiled around the greenery and oversized ornaments wired in one at a time.
“I have to be in the right mood to decorate,” Wood says.
The mood usually strikes right after Thanksgiving when the couple descends to the basement to wade among the dozens of containers loaded with decorations. The boxes are organized for each room, and it is usually Couchman who begins the heavy lifting, moving ornaments and trees, some permanently decorated and pretty heavy-to the upstairs.
“I think,” Wood says, looking at the mantel and peering into the dining room, “there are at least 20 nut-
crackers in these two rooms.”
He started collecting nutcrackers as a kid, about the same time he convinced his mother to let him have his own Christmas tree in his bedroom, a Charlie Brown tree that needed some love. “I learned so much from my mother; that’s where I got my love of decorating.”
His mother, Beryl Wood, fostered his love of decorating but also taught him how to do it. Sewing, wallpapering, painting, cooking, crafts; he grew up in a homegrown university for domestic arts. It has all come in handy in the ongoing renovation of his and Couchman’s big, elegant home. While the major stuff — roof, windows, wiring, plumbing, floors — went to the experts, they tackled the finishing details.
The dining room, decked out with another Christmas tree plus potted palms, garland and lavish centrepiece, was also crowded with food for the party. Wood makes most of it with the help of his mother: spring rolls, crab dip, meatballs, devilled eggs, cheeses and trays of desserts.
Overflow guests gravitate toward the room Wood calls “the cosy garden solarium.” Big windows overlook the garden (featured in The Spectator this summer), and the Christmas tree features frosted fern fronds and bird ornaments. Window coverings and cushions were made by Wood and his mother, and grass cloth walls painted red punctuate the warmth of the room.
There are four bedrooms upstairs; one serves as an office and another as a family room. Each, of course, is decorated for Christmas. The upstairs family room has one of the four fireplaces original to the house, now converted to gas or electric. The mantel is decorated in red and white for the holidays. In the office you’ll find nutcrackers, a garland over the fireplace and a vintage toy train set under the Christmas tree. Each bedroom has a tree, beautiful linens and soft lighting. The rooms seem conjured from the type of welcoming inn you hope to discover on a country drive.
Christmas stays in place until mid-January.
“When I come home, I like to light up everything and sit by the fireplace,” Wood says.
And who wouldn’t, in this home that captures the dreaminess of a childhood Christmas.