The 1850s-era Frederick Hawkins home on Main Street in Stony Brook is an attraction in its own right under the careful stewardship of owners Rich and Barbara De Bree. But when the place gets dressed for the holidays, it really sparkles. The De Brees, who moved in six years ago, have gone out of their way to keep the house true to its original design and content - from the gingerbread latticework above the front porch and original wood floors to the customized beams and even the nails used to repair the old barn. When it comes time to decorate for Christmas, the DeBrees don't have to go far to keep with the restoration motif, down to the minutest details. A 2004 participant in the Three Village Historical Society's Candlelight House Tour, the home fit nicely into the Victorian theme (it was the dessert stop) because nearly all the furniture, fixtures and accessories share that influence. With the help of floral designer Louise Mercer, the home came alive with satin ribbon laced around a branch garland above an expansive kitchen window and on the parlor mantel, where antique Christmas balls were hung over a fireplace bearing a wrought-iron candelabra. Mercer "used a lot of antique [decorations] that we already had," Barbara De Bree says, noting that Mercer's special touch makes an impact. "She could make a shoebox look good," she says. A small Alberta spruce serves as one of the three interior trees in the home, decorated with smaller heirloom Christmas decorations from both De Bree members' families. On a table in the center of the parlor is an antique wood tray containing a winter scene built around a cast-iron skillet with a mirror inside to serve as ice for skating crystal figurines. It was left to Barbara De Bree by her mother. When she was a child, Barbara De Bree says, "We used to put that on our mantel." The ice pond in the skillet is made of a circular mirror sprinkled with dry snow, and the scene is surrounded by dry moss and iced-over trees that match those atop the mantel. On a 100-year-old rocker beside the fireplace stands a papier mâché angel Barbara's mother made when Barbara was a child. Rich De Bree handles all the outside decorating. A tube permanently fixed in the ground in a bed of shrubs beside the front entranceway accommodates a towering Christmas tree that he decorates with more than 1,000 lights. Arcs of live pine
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