BY KADIE VICK
FOR THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — The Victorian Front Porch Tour has been a favored holiday celebration in Opelika for the past 30 years, and thanks to a restoration project of the Christmas sculptures currently underway, it’ll hopefully continue another 30 years.
The annual celebration has grown yearly since its founding and is experiencing some exciting updates this year, according to Jan Jones, the artist who created the Victorian Front Porch sculptures and founded the tour.
Jones returned to see the 30th anniversary Front Porch Tour last Christmas and noticed that some of her sculptures have seen wear after decades of use. She talked to Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller, who was responsive when she proposed that the city should contract her and her assistant, Judy Pour, to fix them. Jones said the city organized moving trucks to transport the sculptures to the multiple locations she will be storing and working on them in the off-season.
Jones said it has been hard but fulfilling to repair her sculptures at the age of 77.
“I’ve been touching up bodies, cutting heads off, fixing arms and doing the underneath part which is messy,” she said. “More of them were in worse shape than I had thought.
“Some of them need redressing. I’ve been sitting with pencil and paper redesigning stuff, and it’s really been great fun,” she said. “It reminds me of when I was in my 30s and I did them all. I had to go and draw the pictures of where Santa was gonna sit and what it was covered by. I’m really enjoying it a lot.”
For many, the Victorian Front Porch Tour is where they connect with their family to make yearly memories, and the Christmas sculptures are the center of the experience.
“You go by, and you look at the displays, then if you want to walk it, that’s when you can really see everything,” Jones said. “The hay wagons are there letting people climb on board, with the tractors pulling and everybody singing Christmas carols. A lot of people do family pictures with the Santas for their Christmas card.”
Jones moved from Auburn to Opelika in 1993.
“I dreamed of a Victorian home and found a little one on Ninth Street,” she said.
At the time, she was an artist and sculptor who had children at home. So, she made a business out of her skills, creating Christmas displays for malls and other local businesses.
“I contracted with our mall to do the Christmas decorations inside,” she said. “I built Santa sets for them. I typically sculpted a few six-foot Santas and elves. I did it all out of a retail building that I had rented in downtown Opelika.”
One year she had some extra Santas and enlisted her neighbors to set them on their porches.
“You know, everybody looked at me like I was a little crazy, but I said, ‘I think it’d be real pretty,’” Jones said.
Thus, the Victorian Front Porch Tour was born when what started as a fun way to use extra sculptures ended up attracting a crowd.
“It was so funny, I was so naïve,” Jones said. “I just think everybody thinks my ideas might be really cool. The second night we were having bumper-to-bumper traffic. [A neighbor] called and said, ‘Have you looked outside? There are cars everywhere!’”
Over the years Jones has watched the masses enjoy her sculptures and delight at the displays she organizes for the tours.
“I’ve had people say, ‘My daughter has cerebral palsy. She’s in a wheelchair. It’s the first time I’ve seen her smile this big.’ That just makes you go oh, wow,” she said.
Although Jones no longer lives in Opelika she has returned multiple times over the years to stroll the same porches she decorated decades ago and view the sculptures that began this tradition. She is excited to see the younger families and couples that have moved into the cherished historic homes and continue to keep the Victorian Front Porch Tour alive.
“I’m very proud of the city, I’m very proud of what it has become and how it’s grown,” Jones said. “I’m very proud that it’s 30 years down the road and I’m very excited that the new blood coming into the neighborhood are as excited about it as I was.”
Jones said her favorite sculpture is one of her Santas who is holding an elf.
“He’s got his eyes shut and is kind of giving the little elf a hug while he sits on his arm. I like that one because it shows that sweet emotion,” she said.
Jones has loved watching her art displayed over the years and is especially thankful that the sculptures she created have become the cornerstone of such a cherished community event.
“I’m just thrilled, as I said before, that it’s still being appreciated,” she said. “It’s fun and just part of who I am. I have always just loved the pleasure that the tour and my art will bring.”