CRESTVIEW, Fla., Dec. 5, 2025—The historic Bush House is decorated in its festive Christmas finery with Christmas music filling the air.

A lively farmers’ and crafters’ market will bustle on the lawn and lavishly costumed storybook characters will flit around the rooms, pausing for photos with visitors.

This is Christmas at the Bush House, home of the Crestview History Museum.

Dec. 13 is the annual opportunity to show off the beauty of the 1926 American Craftsman-style home dressed in its holiday garb and savor the holidays’ warmth in its almost century-old interior.

Helping prepare the house for the holidays makes him think of holidays of old, museum volunteer Montavius Diamond said. Plus, he said, it evokes thoughts of how the Bush House’s original residents might have observed this time of year.

“It makes me have a sort of nostalgic feeling,” he said. “It makes me think about the Bush family when I’m working in their house and how they might have decorated it.”

Volunteer Mary Richard spearheaded much of the decorating with her team of volunteers from the Crestview Area Sister City Program, Pam Coffield, Anna Keown and Jeannine Quilliams. They added new draperies in the front parlor and sitting Rrom, hung greens on the fireplace mantles and up the banister. 

“The Sister City Program shares space in the Bush House, so we love being able to contribute to its events and programs,” said Richard. “Decorating the museum for Christmas has become one of our traditions.”

“It makes me more in a festive mood when I’m helping to decorate a beautiful old house like this one,” Diamond said.

Bing & Grøndahl, Royal Copenhagen and Porsagrund Norway porcelain Christmas plates loaned from a private collection enhance the original Bush House china cabinet with their luscious blue and white imagery of traditional Scandinavian Christmas motifs. 

NWF S.H.A.R.E., a homeschool group that frequently visits the Bush House, partners with the Crestview Cultural Services Division to provide cultural opportunities for the public as well as the group’s students and parents.

The group will collaborate with local artists and cottage industry chefs to host a Christmas Market on the lawn during Christmas at the Bush House while many of the students in NWF S.H.A.R.E.’s theatre classes, dressed as classic storybook characters, will visit with guests.

Included will be the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who, who will also perform in the group’s family-friendly production of “The Grinch” at the Bush House at 6 p.m. Dec. 19. Admission is free.

Christmas at the Bush House

• 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Dec. 13
• 198 South Wilson St.
• Free admission, ample parking in the Wilson Street parking lot and on-street

by Brian Hughes, City of Crestview cultural services specialist