From left, Cham-bettes Martha Bennett and Sandy Howcroft, homeowner Rhonda Berry, designer Kerri Hardman and Rona Cobean of Caitlyn Cobean’s Community Crusaders.

Hub Staff

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, or at least it will after seven homes are decorated for the annual Cham-bettes Christmas Home Tour, November 11 and 12.

After 900 passed through the beautifully decorated homes during the annual event last year, the Cham-bettes are preparing for more, and will print 1,000 tickets for this year.

The Berry home, that sits on Miramchi Bay overlooking Lake Huron, is one of the homes that will be included on this year’s tour. The house will be decorated by Kerri Hardman and the Caitlyn Cobean's Community Crusaders (CCCC), who are hoping to increase awareness of the group.

Their goal is to help improve lives of families within Grey and Bruce counties, whose children have been diagnosed with life threatening illnesses. Hardman will be decorating a tree that will be featured in the home and then raffled off to a lucky winner. The Christmas tree will be worth $2,500 and tickets for the raffle will be $10 each or three for $20, with funds going towards CCCC endeavours.

Tickets for the Christmas Tree Raffle can be purchased at the Berry home during the home tour, at Miller Insurance in Port Elgin and the Southampton Pet Hospital. They can also be purchased at the upcoming CCCC Lip Sync Battle at Lakeshore Recreation October 22.

Tickets for the Christmas Home Tour will go on sale in October and can be purchased in Southampton at Bayberry’s and in Port Elgin at Cathy’s Flowers N’ Treasures as well as Accents.

Cham-bette Martha Bennett is still astonished with the success of last year’s event, and is “thrilled” to team up with the CCCC this year. She said the home tour has really turned into a “girlfriends get-together”, as many women travelled to tour homes in buses and even limos. Bennet said that there were a lot of home owners who volunteered to be a part of the tour, however a shortage of designers capped the tour homes at seven.

The next fundraising event for the Caitlyn Cobean's Community Crusaders will be a Paint Night September 15 at the Southampton Boat House. The event will be hosted by Interior Motives by Kerri (designer Kerri Hardman) and participants will be able to take home their own art project.

Tickets are $65, they include a $35 tax receipt, and can be purchased at Interior Motives by Kerri and Miller Insurance in Port Elgin.

Lip-Sync Battle 2.0 will take place at Lakeshore Recreation on October 22 and members of the CCCC are still looking for participants. Battlers are asked to sign up at Lakeshore Recreation.

By November the Berry home will be decorated for the Christmas season, a part of the annual Cham-bettes Christmas Home Tour. The home will feature a Christmas tree valued at $2,500 that will be raffled off to a lucky winner.