Swedish Christmas tours revisit bygone era: Oscar Anderson House hosts guided holiday event.

• Author: Pounds, Nancy
• Position: Alaska This Month

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Just over the hill from the frenetic pace and stimulating decorations of downtown Anchorage during the holidays awaits an oasis of simplicity. The Oscar Anderson House, circa 1915, will be open Dec. 3-4 and Dec. 11-12 for its annual Swedish Christmas Tours from noon to 4 p.m. The tours are a limited opening for the museum, which will close again until summer.

The Oscar Anderson House, at 420 M Street, was one of the first privately built wood-frame homes completed after the auctioning of Anchorage townsite lots in 1915. It is the city's only house museum and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Swedish immigrant Anderson built the house in 1915 on a spot far from other development then under way.

The Christmas tour is an opportunity to visit the museum at a different time of year, says Museum Manager Mary Flaherty. "Some days you go over the hill to the house, and it looks like a Machetanz painting," she said, describing the setting's rich hues in deep winter.

The seaside location is similar to Sweden, some museum visitors have told her. "Perhaps the vista (Oscar) saw looking out the window reminded him of home," she said.

Flaherty says the house is decorated very simply for Christmas. "We use a lot of straw decorations, which Swedish people today still use."

The Christmas tree has real, albeit unlit candles adorning it, and the front door features a wreath. Most of the decorations festoon the living room with a few others upstairs. Packages under the tree are wrapped in brown paper and twine, befitting the era.

"It is a very warm and lovely time to visit," Flaherty said.

Preserved pieces at Oscar Anderson House recall the echoes of the active and vibrant family. The Christmas tour includes many elements of the regular tour, describing the adventures and daily life of the early Anchorage businessman and his wife and three children.

Museum officials say they decorate the small home in the way the Anderson family probably did, honoring their Swedish heritage. Years ago Anderson's daughter described to museum officials her family's Christmas traditions. Christmas is a big deal in Sweden, and the celebration typically last about a month, beginning with St. Lucia Day Dec. 13.

Flaherty recounted...