Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

1954 was a very good year for Christmas. That was the year Paramount released White Christmas, the movie musical starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney. The same year, Kansas City Power & Light unveiled its All-Electric Model Home in Prairie Village, a state-of-the-art ranch house with the latest built-in appliances, including a crackling electric “fire” in the living room’s hearth and, right over the blond-wood mantle, an oil seascape that, with the touch of a button, slid back to reveal an artfully concealed TV set. What better place to watch a holiday episode of The Ed Sullivan Show?

More than forty years later, the home was moved to the grounds of the Johnson County Museum of History and carefully restored to its Eisenhower-era grandeur. Fans of highly stylized interior design and architecture will appreciate the way the house has been decked out for the holidays in vintage fashion, complete with an aluminum tree highlighted by a spinning color wheel. Underneath the tree, a new-looking 1953 train set rolls around gifts wrapped in silver-and-pink paper while Eartha Kitt seductively croons “Santa Baby” on the hidden “hi-fi.”

In the spotless kitchen, tour guides rattle on about that wild new culinary innovation: the frozen TV dinner!

The museum offers guided tours Tuesdays through Sundays, but for two nights this month, December 22 and 28, costumed “hostesses” escort visitors on a special “Moonglow” tour of the All-Electric Home (on a first-come, first-served basis), offering treats and a holiday ornament.