Re-Creating Christmases of the Past : Holidays: Many historic ranchos and mansions will feature decorations and traditions in coming weeks.

The idea of sharing, woven throughout our holiday customs, was evident in the Southland even a century or more ago. Today, many ranchos and historic mansions re-create this spirit of giving at Christmastime in festivities open to the public.

The vast open fields surrounding them are long gone, victims to housing tracts and shopping malls. But many of the stately homes belonging to the Southland’s early families still stand, decked out for the holiday season in motifs diligently researched from written and oral history.

For Pamela Young, curator at Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach, the weeks before the annual holiday open house at the historical rancho are hectic. The house must be decorated with fresh greens, flowers, and fruit. Following the tradition of the Bixby family, who lived on the rancho, a 16-foot tree must be cut down to fit the 10-foot-high ceiling in the living room, because they liked the bushy effect of the full branches.

Actors and other volunteers from the Long Beach area are recruited to play Bixby family members and friends who might have attended Christmas Eve festivities there in 1923. Hundreds of cookies must be ordered, and gallons of mulled cranberry punch must be brewed.

“Our goal is to re-create the feeling of hospitality that existed on the ranch,” Young says. “There was a tradition of a Christmas Eve party for ranch employees, family and friends. I hope the visitors will leave this year’s open house with a feeling of having had a warm, happy experience and several years from now will remember the event with nostalgia.”

Rancho Los Alamitos, “Company for Christmas,” 6400 Bixby Hill Road, Long Beach, (213) 431-3541. Open house Wednesday through Friday, 6 - 8:30 p.m.; also Dec. 10, noon - 4 p.m. Reservations are a must.

At the Newland House in Huntington Beach, docent training chairman Marsha Johnston said: “We want our guests to feel the warmth of Christmas as it would have been celebrated by a pioneer family at the turn of the century. Mrs. Newland used to can the produce of the 500-acre ranch and make relishes and preserves. She and her daughters would pack baskets to take to neighbors.”

At the turn of the century, people socialized and sang carols. “We want to show how a small community worked together in the past,” says Jo Anne Viserta-Galinis, keeper of the country store at Newland House.

This Christmas, the Newland House will be decorated with antique and replica dolls and toys. Greens will festoon the pictures in the dining room and parlor. The table will be set with the original Newland family’s red and white ironstone china.

“We cheat a little,” Viserta-Galinis says. “We aren’t sure that the Newlands had a Christmas tree, but we know people now want to see a tree, so we’ll have one in the parlor.”

Newland House, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, (714) 962-4112. Dec. 15, costumed docents interpret the history of the city’s oldest residence at a special open house, 7:30-9 p.m. $2 donation. The 1898 farm home will be decorated for Christmas from Wednesday on. Open Wednesday-Thursday 2-4:30; open Saturday - Sunday noon-4 p.m.

At the Workman-Temple Family Homestead in the City of Industry, authenticity is the objective of the holiday decor.

“When you pass through the gates of La Casa Nueva, you enter the 1920s, circa 1928,” says Max van Balgooy, director of education and public affairs for the Homestead Museum.

Both indoors and outdoors, the Spanish-colonial revival mansion will be decorated to portray a party in progress--a tea honoring guests from Chicago visiting the Temple family for the holidays.

In the living room, the ceiling-high tree will be trimmed with crepe paper, blown glass and homemade ornaments fashioned from light bulbs painted black and coated with glitter.

“This is a fantasy look popular in the late 1920s,” says van Balgooy. “We learned how to make the ornaments from an old copy of Popular Mechanics. Visitors may be surprised to see garlands of artificial greens. In the late ‘20s there was a conservation movement that tried to keep people from denuding the local hillsides of greenery.”

Visitors will sip tea laced with flavorings popular in the ‘20s--candied ginger, rum balls, gum drops and loaf sugar.

Van Balgooy is looking forward to portraying a character, Bob Lambert, at the tea.

“Researching and creating the character has made me study the period,” he says. “I’m going to try to incorporate typical sayings such as ‘Jeepers.’ I’m not an actor, but it’s fun to step back in time and become someone else. I like Bob.”

Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, 15415 E. Don Julian Road, City of Industry, (818) 968-8492. “Mistletoe and Holly-Berries Christmas Tea” Dec. 10, 1-6 p.m. A 1928 afternoon tea. Free, but advance reservations required. Holiday tours Tuesday-Friday, 1-4 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. between next Saturday and Jan. 7. Reservations suggested.

Living history is also a part of the festivities at the Los Cerritos Adobe in Long Beach, originally part of a large sheep ranch that belonged to another branch of the Bixby family.

“We are aiming toward an entertaining and educational look at Victorian times on an isolated ranch,” says Steve Iverson, curator. “We want to re-create Christmas 1878, because from our research we know that 1878 was the first time in many years Mrs. Bixby was able to celebrate the holiday with all of her sisters and her father.”

Visitors to the annual open house will be greeted by the blacksmith and the ranch foreman, who are busy repairing the wagon, which, according to family records, broke down while bringing the Christmas tree to the ranch in 1878.

From the blacksmith’s workshop, visitors will troop to the dining room where they will see costumed actors packing gifts for the Basque and Mexican sheepherders who must spend Christmas Day in the fields. The room is decorated with greenery, wreaths and a kissing ball over the table.

Visitors will nibble on lumberjacks (a New England molasses cookie) and Boston cookies (a type of sugar cookie), both washed down with spiced hot cider.

“We want visitors to Los Cerritos adobe to go away with the idea that our values today are similar to those of a century ago,” says Ellen Calomiris, director. “People still celebrate the holiday with family and friends. They think of others in need and want to do something for them.”

Rancho Los Cerritos, 4600 Virginia Road, Long Beach, (213) 424-9423. “Deck the Halls for an 1870’s Christmas,” Friday and next Saturday, 6:30-8:30 p.m.; reservations required. Immediately before the two open houses, the ranch will offer its traditional free pinata party for young children 6-6:30 p.m. The adobe will close for that half-hour. No reservation required for Dec. 10 open house 1-4 p.m. Donation $2; children 5 and younger free.

According to some scholars, the traditions of Yankee settlers in early California replaced the customs of the Mexican and Spanish colonial period. Richard Senate, site manager of Olivas adobe in Ventura, says: “Prior to 1900, Hispanic customs were considered old-fashioned and undesirable.”

“In the early 1920s, there was a romanticization of the Hispanic culture of early California,” says Dr. Michael Heisley, curator of folklore at Southwest Museum. “There was a revival of Spanish-colonial architecture. Elements of authenticity and imagination combined to make a fantasy heritage.”

Senate says the Olivas adobe aims for authenticity in the annual re-enactment of Las Posadas , a procession commemorating the journey of Joseph and Mary through Bethlehem in search of lodging.

“People have told us that our posadas resemble what they have seen in Mexico and Latin America,” Senate says. “We try to keep them as traditional as possible. The candlelight procession resembles an opera. All the words are sung in Spanish. Some people have complained about the darkness, but I feel that the candlelight gives visitors a feeling of the rural environment and adds to the mystical quality of the evening. We want people to know that there’s more than one way to celebrate Christmas.”

Senate says that early in the 19th Century, an adobe rancho home would be decorated with a nacimiento , small statues portraying the Nativity scene. Christmas celebrations would begin with the saint’s day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Dec. 18. The posadas would begin nine days before Christmas. Gifts would be given to the children on Jan. 6 (Twelfth Night).

Olivas Adobe, 4200 Olivas Park Drive, Ventura, (805) 644-4346. Las Posadas Dec. 16, 7-9 p.m. Actors will dress in 19th-Century Mexican attire. Visitors are encouraged to dress in ponchos or typical attire. Traditional refreshments served. A shuttle bus will transport visitors from Olivas Park Golf Course to the house. Event will be canceled if it rains. Free.

Every year since 1968, George and Vivian Obern have been hosts for an open house at the Hope mansion in Santa Barbara. It was built in 1878 as the center of Hope Ranch, a 4,000-acre sheep ranch. In 1967, the Oberns bought the house, then in a state of disrepair, as a 25th wedding anniversary gift to one another. Although they have never lived in the house, they have restored it to its original Victorian splendor.

“We started the open house as a Christmas present to our neighborhood,” Vivian Obern said.

Hope House, 399 Nogal Drive, Santa Barbara, off Hollister Avenue at the end of State Street, (805) 682-3175 . Open house Dec. 10, 1-4 p.m. Free.

In addition to these activities, Christmas open houses will be observed at other historic adobes in the Los Angeles area. Some are listed below. Space and parking may be limited.

Andres Pico Adobe, 10940 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills, (818) 354-7810. Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m. annual open house and Las Posadas in the second-oldest remaining adobe house in Los Angeles. Free, but candles for the procession can be purchased for $1.

Casa de Adobe de San Rafael, 1330 Dorothy Drive, Glendale, (818) 507-0131. Festival de las Luminarias Dec. 28-30. On Dec. 28-29, 6-9 p.m., luminarias will deck the house and garden built by Tomas Sepulveda de Sanchez, civic leader and first sheriff of Los Angeles. Children’s pinata party Dec. 30, 2-5 p.m. Free.

Centinela Adobe, 7634 Midfield Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 649-6272. Jan. 7, 6-8 p.m., the grounds of the 1830s adobe, at one time the home of Daniel Freeman, will be lit by 200 luminarias at the annual open house. Free.

Los Encinos State Historic Park, 16756 Moorpark St., Encino, (818) 784-4849. At a “Living History” program, docents in 1870s costume will show how Christmas was celebrated on a typical rancho a century ago. Brass band, craft workshops and more. Sunday 1-4 p.m. Free.