“Yuletide at the Bayou Bend”

If you’re sick of plastic trees and mechanical Santas, get a hefty dose of old-timey Christmas at the Bayou Bend Collection, the center for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s American decorative arts collection. This year’s “Yuletide at the Bayou Bend” celebrates Houston philanthropist Ima Hogg, who gave the estate to the museum in 1957. Three of the estate’s eight rooms are decorated for the season, united under the theme “Holiday Heroines.” The experiences of Miss Hogg, poet Phillis Wheatley, President James Madison’s wife Dolley, and several other women are recreated in rooms whose decorative styles reach as far back as colonial times. Wheatley’s room features a replica of the mahogany card table she used as a desk; and “guests” in Dolley Madison’s room will play her preferred card game, “loo.” You can take a self-guided tour from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays and Saturdays. Guided tours are available by reservation from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturdays. Through December 30. 1 Westcott Street. For reservations and information, call 713-639-7750 or visit www.mfah.org. $5 to $10.
Nov. 17-Dec. 30, 2007