It’s officially Christmas time, and the ladies of the Cedar Oaks guild are getting ready for the fifth annual Cookiepalooza at Cedar Oaks in Oxford.
“[This is] our gift to the community, and we just want to give back,” said Dianne Fergusson, chair of the event. “We like to get people in the house. We like for it to be alive and filled with people.”
Fergusson along with other members of Cedar Oak’s Guild started Cookiepalooza in hopes of bringing more children in to tour Cedar Oaks, an Antebellum home built by William Turner in 1859 and now maintained by the Historic Sites Commission and supported by Cedar Oaks Guild.
“I really enjoy seeing the little children come, and they’re all so cute in their little Christmas outfits,” said Guild member Sharon Shreiber. “They’re all excited and getting cookies and running around the house … [how the house] used to be for most of its life.”
For this year’s Bicentennial-edition Cookiepalooza, a local church’s children’s choir will be caroling downstairs, visitors can go upstairs to sit with Santa, and there will be a photo booth set up as well as crafts, cookies and punch.
“Santa will greet all the people that come to the house from the youngest to the oldest,” said Guild member Carolyn Lott “And, they can all come in. [Santa] will have something to give them as well as ask them what they wish for for Christmas.”
The Cookiepalooza will be free of charge Sunday, Dec. 3 from 3 to 6 p.m. Cedar Oaks is located at 601 Murray Drive in Oxford.
Story contributed by Ole Miss journalism student Sam Usry, sausry@go.olemiss.edu, and Madison Stirsman, mastirsm@go.olemiss.edu.
