Lehigh Acres’ first ever Holiday House will open to the public on Friday, Dec. 2 from 4 to 7:30 p.m. and continue to open throughout December. The Holiday House will open again on Dec. 3 from 1 to 6 p.m. and on Dec. 9 from 4 to 7:30 p.m. and then Dec. 10 and 11 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Barbara Snyder of Lehigh, who along with Kristi Williams and several retired professional decorators, will turn a model home at 5006 Lee Blvd. into the best interior decorated home in Lehigh.

“This is the first time for a Holiday House in Lehigh,” said Pastor Deb Frysinger, for whom Snyder works closely with to provide food for the hungry and homeless of Lehigh Acres.

Adams Home is providing the model home that is filled with furniture.

Snyder said each room of the house will be decorated with more than a hundred items, all new, and there will also be several Christmas trees all decorated with the main one, a seven-foot high tree in the living room.

Barbara Synder

“People may come to the Lehigh Holiday House and enjoy all the beautiful decorations,” Snyder said. Admission is free.

“We are asking the public to enjoy the season by visiting our Holiday House and making bids on the items in the home. At the end of the open house dates, all the items from toys, to Christmas decorations and more plus several decorated trees will go to the homes of those who made the high bids on a paper pad near the items in what’s called a silent auction

When you bid, you may want to come back and see if someone has increased the bid with theirs,” Snyder said.

She said all the proceeds made from the Holiday House will go to purchasing food to serve at the free soup kitchens at First community Congregational Church at 200 Leeland Heights Blvd.

On Wednesdays, Snyder and her husband provide all the food and she even prepares it herself to feed those who turn out. A food pantry is open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon and there is also a bread pantry at the church which is open two days a week now, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.

In addition to her involvement in helping those who are hungry, she serves as the financial secretary of the church. She is a retired and has an accounting background.

The free soup kitchen is also open on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Jack Cooper, another faithful member of the church, does all the cooking for those who come to get a hot meal.

The food kitchens are the only ones in Lehigh where people who are hungry can come to and sit down at a table with a tablecloth and enjoy a meal.

Snyder is no stranger to Christmas decorating, having been responsible for years for a Holiday House in Cape Coral.

She said the Lehigh Chamber of Commerce lent them some “seed money” to get them started in the purchase of items. Other things have been donated and the public may still donate new Christmas decorations of all types by calling the church.

“People will also vote on the best decorated room. And the public can sponsor a room for a price. Each of the rooms, including the bedrooms will be decorated for the holiday season.

If you want to buy a seven to eight-foot brightly decorated Christmas tree with all the ornaments and lights on it, this is the place to go. Make a bid and if you win the bid, you take the tree home, already professional decorated.

“I couldn’t do this without the help of Kristi Williams who provided the set-up. She is very excited about this being the very first Holiday House in Lehigh,” Snyder said.

She knows the money from the proceeds of the sale of all the items will really help people who need food.

“The church has to buy the food from the Harry Chapin Food Bank and because of the increased costs, the food bank has to charge more for those agencies that buy food. We need the food because of the increase in the number of hungry people in Lehigh,” Snyder said.

She says when they started the food kitchen, they fed 100 people and in a month the numbers had grown to 3,000 plus, all coming to the church for food, both the soup kitchen and the food pantry.

“I really want people to know that this not about the church. It is about the soup kitchens and the food pantry. It’s all about having food for those people who have suddenly found themselves without money to afford things like food,” Snyder said.

With tears in her eyes, Snyder said she watched a little three-year-old girl in a highchair a few weeks back who had come with her parents who lived in the woods around Lehigh to eat in the soup kitchen.

“Our eyes met, that little girl and me, and I smiled and she smiled back. I was so touched,” she said.

She remembered that the little girl had used her fingers to dip into a peanut butter jar and her mother had gently scolded her for not using a spoon.

“It’s little kids like these that make you want to do what you can to try to make sure nobody is hungry in this town,” Snyder said.

“That’s when we came up with the idea of the Holiday House. It is a unique and fun way to raise money. We have a separate account with all the money coming in going to that account to pay for food. And if there are those who want to leave a financial contribution, we are more than happy in accepting it,” Snyder said.

“We’re really excited. We expect to start decorating the house on Nov. 27 and spend four days in getting ready for the Dec. 2 opening,” she said.

She said realizing that money is tight for just about everyone in the community, she expects such things as the Christmas trees to bid off starting around $275. They would be the largest bids of all,” she said. Snyder remembers once in Cape Coral a man from Colorado bid a thousand dollars for such a tree.

“We took pictures of it and then we took all the ornaments off and boxed it up and shipped it all to Colorado for his Christmas,” she said.

“Each of the rooms in the Holiday House will have a theme. For instance, the dining room will have a Poinsettia theme. The master bedroom will have a blue theme, even with a blue-lit Christmas tree.

“We’re calling the dining room the white and gold room with everything will be in those colors,” she said.

“But the main tree will be in the living room. You will have to come and see it. It will be the largest tree we decorate,” she said.

There will be wreaths in the windows and one of the florists helping us is the Westminster Florist, plus another one in Lehigh.

“This is one way to get the Christmas spirit and know your money will feed hungry people. The money, every dime of it will pay for food. The spirit of giving will make you feel so good at this special time of the year,” she said.

“Imagine this. We have lots of people, whole families, who live in the woods because they have lost their jobs and their homes. We have families living in cars. The people in Lehigh have no idea just how desperate it has become for many of their neighbors,” added Pastor Deb Frysinger.

Captions for story:

Barbara Snyder

For Holiday House: Barbara Snyder holds two of the Christmas decorations she has prepared to display in Lehigh’s first ever Holiday House to be open to the public on Dec. 2. All the Christmas decorations inside the house will be sold in a silent auction. MEL TOADVINE