Hooray for the Return of the Holiday Home Tour!
November 2021
The longstanding tradition of the “Carol of Homes” Holiday Home Tour presented by Zionsville Show Choirs (ZSI) is back to its original in-person program! The tour features six beautifully decorated homes in Zionsville and talented members of ZSI under the direction of co-directors Sam Chenoweth and Deana Broge. It is a wonderful tradition as well as being the show choirs’ largest semester fundraiser.
This annual fundraiser is critical to ZSI’s 2022 programs and to ensuring the continuation of said programs. And while ZSI was able to present a virtual home tour in 2020, the results and impact were just not the same as an in-person tour and performances. The Holiday Home Tour is also a vital component to Zionsville’s holiday traditions that are cherished by the ZSI performers as well as the event’s hosts and community at large.
Back to the Regularly Scheduled Program
“We’re excited about [the holiday home tour] being back to a program that is more closely aligned to what the original event was—prepandemic—and to the impact that it has,” Chenoweth expressed. “We’ve got lots of acts, and the kids have done a really great job preparing a variety of numbers, so we’re glad that we’re back to getting to showcasing our students, the decorated houses and the whole event.”
Broge added, “We have been in the throes of the holidays since the first week of October preparing, so we are ready for the holidays. We will have singers down on the brick street to help start Christmas in the Village, and the rest of our performers will be in the six host homes throughout the day [Dec. 4].”
Chenoweth and Broge expressed their gratitude to all the event sponsors, home tour hosts and the ZSI fundraising chairs Catherine Casaciani and Ann Soards and their committee. She also thanked the community for its unwavering support.
“The community has been so supportive of Zionsville Show Choirs,” Broge stated. “We’ve not really had to ask for people to volunteer [as a home tour host] for many years. They reach out and say that they would love to host and open up their homes to us for the Holiday Home Tour.”
Hark, the ZSI Students Sing!
This year’s Royalaires president Cece Champa, a ZCHS senior, spoke about how she and her fellow performers feel about the return to in-person performances at this year’s event.
“I’m really excited to be back in the houses because it is fun to see the community come together for the holidays and celebrate in a unique way that not all other communities celebrate,” Champa said. “I think everybody is really excited about doing this and about getting together, deciding what song we are going to do and how we’re going to make it our own by adding our own little parts. This year, we’ve picked a really fun piece that’s a little different from what we normally do. It’s an all-day thing that we get to do together, and I think we’re all excited for that part of it too.”
Join us in supporting ZSI students and staff by purchasing your tickets to this year’s Holiday Home Tour and be part of the celebratory vibes that help sustain our community’s most cherished traditions as well as our talented youth!
More information can be found at http://holidayhometour.net/.
Writer:
Janelle Morrison
Photography:
Submitted