Tour five of Missouri’s most elegant historic homes decked out in their holiday finest.
Every Christmas season, these five historic mansions across Missouri decorate with twinkling lights, fresh greenery, and festive decor. The grand estates invite guests to experience the holidays with themed tours, historic tales, and trimmed trees.
Missouri Governor’s Mansion
A White Christmas in Jefferson City
Subscribe
Get a Missouri Life Magazine Subscription & Save Up to 69% Off Newsstand Prices!
Subscribe Today
The Missouri Governor’s Mansion, perched on a bluff above the Missouri River in Jefferson City, has been home to every Missouri governor and their families since 1872. The mansion was built in the mansard style, with two slopes on all four roofed sides, offering living space on its top floors.
• Rob Shafer/Infinite Moment Photgraphy
Each November, staff and volunteers transform the house and grounds for the holidays, with a large decorated tree filling the Great Hall and another on the mansion’s front lawn.
The tour leads visitors through the Great Hall, the double parlor, the dining room, a cozy nook beneath the staircase, and the library. The mansion’s roughly 45 docents, trained using If Walls Could Talk: The Story of Missouri’s First Families by former first lady Jean Carnahan, share stories with visitors, including tales of a governor’s daughter hiding candy in the grandfather clock and children sliding down the staircase.
Of all the mansion’s Christmas traditions, the annual tree lighting, held on the opening night of the Candlelight Tours, is the most well attended and treasured, Shari says. The Governor’s Gardens are also on display, with the whole hillside glowing after dark. The festivities also include a menorah lighting, and Santa and Mrs. Claus greet visitors at the start of the tour.
The mansion is open to the public for the free Candlelight Tours on December 4 and 7 from 6 to 8 pm. No reservations are required. Regular tours resume in the spring.
• 100 Madison Street, Jefferson City • Mansion.mo.gov
Vaile Mansion
A Victorian Fairytale Christmas in Independence
In 1881, Harvey Vaile, who made his money on government contracts to carry the mail from Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and his wife, Sophia, built the extravagant 31-room Vaile Mansion in Independence. The mansion features a black walnut staircase, hand-carved Carrara marble, and faux bois woodwork, plain wood that is painted to appear like a finer grain of wood.
After a series of owners and an auction that dispersed the original furniture, the mansion was donated to the city of Independence in 1983. The Vaile Victorian Society has since refurnished it with period pieces, guided by an itemized list from that auction recording what each room held.
This year, Fairytale Christmas is the tour’s theme, woven with Disney elements that celebrate Walt Disney’s Missouri connections (he lived in Marceline).
Pam Fulmer, board member of the Vaile Victorian Society, has spent 16 years working with the mansion, and she says the appeal has never worn off. “There is so much to see,” she says. “There are so many original thoughts in the architecture and design. You can’t look at each detail enough.” When she gives visitors tours, she likes to show them the mansion’s grotesques, tiny carved faces hidden in the woodwork of the Nature’s Bower room, where Mr. Vaile used to retire with a cigar and a glass of sherry.
The mansion’s signature holiday event, Twilight Evening, is held for one night only on December 5 and gives visitors the opportunity to wander candlelit rooms, every tree glowing with flameless candles, while docents answer questions. Visitors can also take regular tours of the house, decorated for the holidays, from November 28 through December 27, Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 am to 4 pm and Sundays from 1 to 4 pm, except from December 23 through 25. Regular tours during these dates, as well as the Twilight Evening tours, are $15 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets are purchased at the door.
• 1500 North Liberty Street, Independence • VaileMansion.org
The Phelps House
Carthage’s Gilded Age Christmas
William H. Phelps, a principal attorney for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, shrewd investor, and well-known political figure, built Phelps House in Carthage in 1895. William’s second wife, Bridgey O’Leary Phelps, lived in the house until 1959, when she sold it to the Diocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau, which used it as a residence for nuns and to house St. Ann’s Catholic School, where the nuns taught. Carthage Historic Preservation purchased the property in 1988, and volunteers have cared for it since.
Ten original fireplaces framed with tile or marble warm the 16-room house, which features a parlor with custom woodwork and gilded furniture that William bought at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. On the third floor is a ballroom that doubled as a billiards room most of the year, the staff clearing it as needed before a dance; its ceiling was painted to re-create the night sky.
“The Phelps House is especially magical during the Christmas season, when the mansion is decorated to reflect the elegance and prosperity of a Victorian Christmas,” says Betsy Flanigan, a Carthage Historic Preservation board member. A nine-foot tree fills the library, strung with replicas of the family’s original glass kugels, silvered ornaments made of glass with a mirrored coating that reflects light, which were fashionable in the Victorian era. The smoking room, where men would gather after dinner for cigars and drinks, contains a smaller tree with reproductions of the family’s original Dresdens, intricate German-imported pressed-cardboard ornaments of the period. A hand-embroidered bedcover dating from 1816, which was donated by a local family, is brought out for holiday display.
Every other year, including 2026, the mansion is part of a Holiday Homes Tour and serves High Tea on all three floors with three available seating times. This year the tour and tea take place on December 5. “Both the tea and the homes tour have become treasured traditions, a wonderful way to celebrate the season while supporting the preservation of one of Carthage’s most cherished landmarks,” Betsy says.
Holiday Homes Tour tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door; High Tea tickets are $40 in advance, and reservations are required.
• 1146 Grand Avenue, Carthage • CarthageHistoricPreservation.org
To read about the other two mansions purchase the November/December issue here or pick it up at your favorite newsstand.
This article was originally printed in the November/December 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
