Tidings of Joy
This Edina home lights up the holidays with warm memories and riotous color
By Andrea Grazzini Walstrom
Photo by Alex Steinberg
“We are definitely a destination during the holidays,” says Marsha, who is known for her unique holiday handiwork. Every year, the couple and their two children invite colleagues, neighbors, friends, and family from around the country to help them celebrate. “There are people I won’t see all year long until they come to our annual party,” Marsha says. “It’s a great time to reconnect.”
Marsha always composes the perfect setting. “[Dan] is very social and gives us lots of opportunities to entertain,” Marsha says. “And I thrive on being able to cater to our guests.” She’s more than up to the task—which she also performs for clients of her floral- and event-design business, Thompson Hunt in Edina. In early December, Marsha coordinates an epic-scale party. There is plenty of good food, crafts for the children and their friends, and even a visit from you-know-who. But the main attraction for many is the stunning, festive environment that is the Hunt home during the holidays. “[Guests] want to see what I’m up to each year,” Marsha says.
Photo by Alex Steinberg
The stately library is suitably Dickinsonian. The room’s Victorian design includes traditional Della Robia garland loaded with fruits. To reinforce the room’s bibliophilic purpose, Marsha plucked antique tomes from the room’s bookshelves and tucked them into wreaths adorning each window.
In the sensuous Italian Renaissance-style music room, Venetian Carnival papier mâché masks are perched among musical note ribbon on the mantel. To add a three-dimensional still-life effect, Marsha cut an urn in half and placed it in a gilded frame. Bursting with Rubenesque orchids and pepperberries, and lit by a single art light, the vase mirrors its other half across the room, which holds an inverted Christmas tree. Floor space was an issue, Marsha says, but with the tree’s heftiest branches at the top rather than the bottom, the room opens up and the eye is drawn to the unexpected display.
Photo by Alex Steinberg
Visitors are transported to France via the informal eating area off the kitchen, where elegant topiary and a stack of aged urns add Parisian flair. The traditional, 14-foot Christmas tree is the great room’s centerpiece. With the help of the Hunt children, Marit, 11, and Devan, 9, Marsha adorns the fir with endless strands of twinkle lights and hundreds of ornaments—a mix of sentimental favorites and show pieces, including oversized iced apples and pears, and frosted spheres in raspberry red that range from 5 to 10 inches in diameter. “It takes a while to decorate it,” Marsha admits. And more than a little finesse. To get the tree topper on, she pushes the tree across the room so Dan can crown it from the stairway.
In the kitchen, family and friends are treated to a bit of Italian history. A collection of hand-painted Italian ceramic dishes and accessories—some of the teacups cunningly attached to wreaths and garland—surround the space. The theme here is more about family heritage than cultural history, however. Marsha’s grandmother started the collection, and she and Marsha’s mother supplied the vintage costume jewelry that adorns the napkin rings. “It’s a great way to bring a little of their stories into our holidays,” says Marsha, who serves an Italian feast, including crostini and tomato-basil pasta, and cocoa truffles.
And that is what Dan and Marsha Hunt’s holiday home is all about: bringing people together and telling vivid, visual stories that delight and inspire. “Ambiance and atmosphere can really be a celebration,” Marsha says.
Andrea Grazzini Walstrom is a Burnsville-based writer.
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