Christmas celebrations of different eras will be showcased during the annual Historic Holiday Candlelight Tour on Dec. 5-6.

"At our house, we do have a Christmas tree, which is an element they probably didn't have at Meadow Garden," said Julia Jackson, of Historic Augusta, which operates the Boyhood Home of Woodrow Wilson, one of the five house museums on the tour.

Built in 1791, Meadow Garden was the home of George Walton, the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. Christmas trees weren't in vogue then, but they were coming into fashion with Queen Victoria's reign in England in the 1850s. Wilson's family, which lived in the Seventh Street home from 1860 to 1870, might have had a tree.

Other house museums on the tour are the Ezekiel Harris House, built in 1797; Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site in Beech Island, completed in 1859; and the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History.

Museum visitors not only will see the homes in a different light but they also will learn how the families celebrated, with re-enactors in period costumes at each site.

Christmas dÃcor has changed in America over the centuries.

In most of the homes the dÃcor will be simple.

"It would have been very basic," Ms. Jackson said of the Wilson house. "They would have used what was around."

Ezekiel Harris was a tobacco merchant, and tobacco leaves have been used in the dÃcor in past tours.

At Redcliffe Plantation, visitors will see how James Henry Hammond, a wealthy plantation owner and former governor, would have celebrated in the mansion completed in 1859. They will also a peek into how slaves would have observed the holiday season.

There will be a full program dealing with the slaves at Redcliffe Plantation on Saturday, Dec. 20.

The candlelight tours will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, and from 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6. Tickets are $15 for adults and $7 for students. Children younger than 5 will be admitted free.

Tickets may be purchased at any of the tour stops or by calling (706) 724-0436.

Proceeds benefit the house museums. One ticket is good for both days and all of the house museums.

Reach Charmain Brackett at charmain.brackett@augustachronicle.com.