Graceland tops list of Best Holiday Historic Home Tours in the US
For the sixth year in a row, Graceland has been voted America's top "holiday historic home" in a poll conducted by USA TODAY.
To be more specific, Elvis Presley's Memphis mansion was selected over nine other nominees in the "Best Holiday Historic Home Tour" category in the national news organization's annual Christmas-season "Readers' Choice 10Best" initiative, which asked online participants to pick a winner in such categories as "Best Holiday Market" (it's in Carmel, Indiana), "Best Hotel for the Holidays" (The Roosevelt in New Orleans — The Peabody didn't make the top 10), "Best Holiday Parade" (the 122-year-old "Mummers" procession in Philadelphia), and so on.
"The Christmas season at Graceland kicks off in mid-November and allows visitors to tour the home decorated for the season with traditional lights, a life-size nativity scene, and Elvis' Santa," reports a non-bylined story about the results at 10best.usatoday.com. "Presley family Christmas artifacts are also on display during this special time of year."
In addition to the traditional lights and displays, the Graceland campus this year opened a gallery displaying a definitive collection of the miniature collectible Christmas villages that have been created over the past half-century by the Department 56 company.
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10 Best Historic Home Tours
Here is the list from this year's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards:
Graceland (not only the most recognizable but the youngest of these mansions, dating to 1939).
The 1886 Stetson Mansion in DeLand, Florida, which is now known as "Christmas Mansion."
The Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron, Ohio, a Tudor-style mansion completed in 1915 by F.A. Seiberling, the co-founder of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber company.
Meadow Brook Hall, a 110-room 1949 Tudor mansion in Rochester, Michigan.
The Jacobean-style 1915 Glensheen Historic Estate in Duluth, Minnesota.
Brucemore, from the 19th Century, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The "Gilded Age" Newport Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.
"Trail End," the early 1900s Flemish Revival-style mansion built by cattle baron John Kendrick in Sheridan, Wyoming.
The 1917 Filoli Historic House and Garden in Woodside, California.
The 250-room Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, completed in 1895 by George Vanderbilt.
According to USA TODAY, the newspaper's ongoing 10Best series of reader-voted recommendations "empowers you to live well and travel smart by providing original, unbiased and experiential content." Nominations can be made by the general public, but a panel of experts narrows the field to 20 nominees. The "experts" who chose the 10 "Historic Holiday Home Tour" nominees were theme park aficionado NikkyJ, founder of the ThemeParkHipster.com website; Tampa travel writer Skye Rodgers; and Catherine Smith, Readers' Choice Awards Production Manager and Social Media Director for USA TODAY.
Voting in the holiday 10Best categories took place in November.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Graceland tops list of Best Holiday Historic Home Tours in the US
