Christmas season at Sturdivant Hall, located at 713 Mabry St., will begin with its annual Open House on Dec. 8-9 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

The museum is allowing free admission on those dates so guests can explore the Christmas decorations in the historic Greek revival mansion and house museum.

“Every year, we open the house at Christmas time, and we have volunteers who decorate all the rooms downstairs,” Sturdivant Hall board member Sandy Greene said. “Especially at Christmas, when it’s decorated, we offer two days with no admission that people can come in, tour and see all of the holiday decorations.”

Each of 10 rooms in the historic home will have its own Christmas theme based on the creativity and resourcefulness of the volunteers.

“Each room is different,” Greene said. It just depends on what each person would like to have in that room. There’s a huge tree in the front parlor that is decorated also, and it’s donated by Stephens Tree Farm.”

This year’s volunteers include Rebecca Nichols of Shabby & Chic Events, Albritton Flowers, The Flower Basket, Bevelyn Anderson of Four Seasons, Beth Edwards, Marian Carter, Martha Hughes, Greg Bjelke, Judy McInnis, Leslie Smith, Jenny Loughridge and Jill Wilkinson.

Sturdivant Hall will be “totally transformed” by Friday, according to Sturdivant Hall chairman Leah Weaver.

She said that the decorations will naturally fit with the period of the mansion.

“It will be like it would’ve been decorated back in that time period,” she said. “It’s all very natural. You wouldn’t see a blinking Santa Clause or something like that. It’d be very period appropriate.”

The volunteers got started on Tuesday, and Sturdivant Hall will be decked out for the holidays in time for the Open House.

“It would be a treat for the community to get to see it,” Weaver said. “On those days, they can come by and look and not have to pay any kind of fee to want to go through and see all the pretty decorations.”

The Open House has seen guests from both near and far come to look at the decorations and get in the holiday spirit.

“I think they look forward to it every year,” Greene said. “I’m sure it gives them lots of ideas for decorations for their own home. Of course, we have a lot of Selma people come, but then we have people coming from the surrounding towns also.”