news-record.com

GIBSONVILLE — Imagine a front porch with lighted garlands and red ribbons, wreaths on the front door and two lighted trees near the front steps.

It could be a Christmas scene at any home.

But then envision a 9-foot-tall tree full of nearly a half-century’s worth of memories, one decorated like a scene from a winter wonderland, and yet another adorned with ornaments in honor of Charlie Brown, Linus and Snoopy.

Welcome to High Rock Farm and the way Rolfe Teague does Christmas.

The farm is part of the Main Street United Methodist Women’s annual Christmas Homes Tour, which will be held Dec. 6. The many trees are just a few of the decorative touches visitors to the Teague home can expect to see.

“I always go over the top, but I can’t help it,” Teague said.

The Teague home is one of five on the tour, the only fundraiser for the women’s group at Main Street United Methodist Church in Reidsville. “All the money we earn goes back into the community,” said Robbie Erickson, chairwoman of the fundraiser.

The money raised has been used to support charities such as the Reidsville Outreach Center, the Free Clinic of Rockingham County and Relay For Life.

The women’s group has organized the homes tour for about 20 years, Erickson said.

Erickson recruits homeowners by knocking on their doors and asking if they would  like to participate.

She asks that they don’t do any more decorating than they normally do at Christmas, but it must be completed by the first weekend in December.

Erickson said she tries to include both modern and historic homes on the tour.

You can’t get much more historic than High Rock Farm.

Teague and her husband,  Richard, bought the house in 1990 from the Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina. “I’m an old house nut,” said Teague, who restored houses when she lived in Winston-Salem.

The Federal-style mansion was built circa 1808 by Joseph McCain, the great-great-great grandfather of Sen. John McCain, Teague said.

Teague and her husband spent years repairing an array of problems in the heating, plumbing, wiring and roofing.

“We had the house three years before we could live in it,” she said.

Teague delights in decorating the home for Christmas. Teague’s husband helps with  the outdoor work, and she’s had students assist her with the indoor decorations.

Her house was on the homes tour once before, in 1994.

But over the past 15 years, Teague has collected even more items to show off. Eventually, there will be seven trees in the house. The Snoopy tree, started in 1975 for her now 42-year-old son, holds ornaments celebrating the Peanuts comic characters.

The memory tree in the parlor has ornaments she’s collected during her 46 years of marriage.

“I can’t throw any ornaments away,” Teague said.

Downstairs in the family room stands the “Kmart Special,” a tree full of colorful plastic bulbs.

“For an all-plastic tree, that’s pretty darn cute,” Teague said Tuesday after turning its lights on.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com