Christmas Cookie Tour!!! Twelve Days Of Christmas

Holiday decor in the Garver House B&B

 My day was spent exploring Amish Country this past Saturday. This is my second time writing about this particular setting. I was there specifically for the 7th Annual Christmas Cookie Tour of Inns presented by The Amish Country Lodging Council. It is a tour that benefits local charities and offers the opportunity for Amish Country Inns to get exposure and market their business. The participants visit each Inn to check out the rooms, holiday decorations and they receive a special cookie from each location. I heard about this tour two years ago. The last couple years, tickets sold out before I thought to purchase any. This year, once October ended; I ordered two tickets for the first day, of the two day event. Two weeks later I received two tickets in the mail along with two souvenir books. The books contained information about all the Inns that were participating, a map, the cookie recipes and images of quilt pieces representing 'Twelve Days Of Christmas', the theme of this year's tour.

I woke early Saturday morning to get to Amish Country for breakfast and allow myself time to reach the first stop as soon as the event began. We started at the Inn farthest away so we could work our way back for convenience. We had twelve Inns to visit from 12:30P.M. until 6:00P.M. This gave me and my travel companion thirty minutes per stop, which was more than we needed for any location. Some of the venues were further away and not easy to find which ate up some time. Thank goodness I was with someone who knew the area well. We made such good time, we were able to stop at a few places in between.

The Garver House Bed& Breakfast

The first two stops of the tour were in Strasburg. The Ramada Inn was stop one and my least favorite of the tour. You could tell they didn't budget much for their decorations. I didn't even turn on my camera. They had 'Nine Ladies Dancing' from the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' theme and used Christmas trees with dancing ladies ornaments to satisfy the theme. The next stop was Garver House Bed & Breakfast. The décor was country style with quilts and felt decorations. The Inn itself was beautiful, comprised of decorative wooden flooring and stunning stained glass windows. I could see myself spending a weekend there as soon as I walked through the door. Then they served us a tortilla soup and I never wanted to leave. It was so good. We finished the first two Inns in thirty minutes so we checked out a winery we had not been to. I will go into detail about that a little later.

Garver House 'A Partridge In A Pair Tree'

Carlisle Inn Sugarcreek 'Twelve Drummers Drumming'

Carlisle Inn in Sugarcreek was our third stop. The hotel was beautiful and the holiday decorations were incredible. Their decorations were my favorite of all the stops. They displayed a large deer prop on a bed with pine-like garland and other smaller holiday pieces. The pillow cases said Merry Christmas and were lit using red lights in candle holders. Since they had day twelve 'Twelve Drummers Drumming', they displayed stacks of bright shinny drums throughout the hotel. They also had a reception area with a hot coco bar that contained four kinds of hot coco and toppings. The caramel coco was delicious. I left feeling spoiled. The cookie they presented was a gooey red velvet butter cookie. It was insanely good. On to a cozy Memory Lane Cabin in Walnut Creek, where I barely recall the holiday décor but was fascinated with the wall of taxidermy. In addition to the cookie we expected we were also given homemade chocolate turtles.

Carlisle in Sugarcreek lobby

Memory Lane taxidermy wall

The fifth stop was a new hotel also in Walnut Creek called Wallhouse Hotel. The hotel was furnished with modern pieces and the holiday decorations delivered the same modern feel. The white Christmas tree in the lobby was adorned with sparkly blue bulbs. The blue was a nice contrast to the lime green color found through out the rest of the hotel. Wallhouse had the best food presentation, offering stacked cheese, tomato and olives. The finger food offering was strange but visually stunning. They also had a bakery vendor there who was handing out mini cupcakes. Yum!
 

Wallhouse Hotel

Wallhouse Christmas tree and 'Three French Hens'

Our sixth stop was the Carlisle Inn location in Walnut Creek. They have two locations but the hotels are both pretty different. The decorations were pretty, not as nice the first location. They were assigned 'Five Golden Rings'. They incorporated their theme in the diamond ring cut out cookie they passed out. I didn't recall seeing decorations related to the theme anywhere else. It was a beautiful hotel regardless.

Carlisle Inn Walnut Creek 'Five Golden Rings'

The next two Inns were in Wilmot and Dundee. The Inn at Amish Door was assigned 'Eleven Pipers Piping'. They didn't do much with the theme but their holiday decorations were beautiful and creative. They gave out mint whoopie pies which were my favorite take away from the event. We got lost temporarily looking for Sojourner's Lodge in Dundee. Once we got there we didn't stay long. The decorations outside were nice but their wasn't much inside the lodge. They incorporated 'Six Geese A Laying' with their takeaway,  an egg cut out cookie and a goose prop surrounded by golden plastic eggs with Christmas facts and jokes inside.

Decorations from The Inn at Amish Door 'Eleven Pipers Piping'

Sojourner's Lodge Decoractions 'Six Geese a Laying'

Enlarged quilt piece by Loretta Coblentz ' Six Geese a Laying'

By the time we got down to the last four Inns we were just about exhausted, but we kept pushing on. Luckily the last four were fairly close to each other. In Berlin we stopped at Zinck's Inn, Berlin Resort and Berlin Grand Hotel. Then we finished in Millersburg at Guggisberg Swiss Inn. At Zinck's we were met with brownie Christmas tree pops, the only non-cookie on the whole tour. In the lobby they had a beautiful tree with paper 'Ten Lords A Leaping'and two of the cutest elderly people singing Christmas Carols and playing instruments. Berlin Resort had another one of my favorite trees in their lobby and they were creative with their theme assignment. They used cow printed throws with an Amish maiden outfit thrown across a bed and a Christmas tree covered with cow lights, cow printed bows and little silver milk pails to portray 'Eight Maids A Milking'. Berlin Grand Hotel went literal with 'Two Turtle Doves' by placing ceramic turtle doves paired with red candles in their tour rooms.  My favorite Inn in terms of playing with the theme was Guggisberg Swiss Inn, who created 'Seven Swans A Swimming' with towel swans on the beds of the two rooms we viewed.

Zinck's Inn Christmas Tree in Lobby 'Ten Lords a Leaping'

Berlin Resort 'Eight Maids a Milking'

Berlin Grande Hotel  'Two Turtle Doves'

Guggisberg Swiss Inn 'Seven Swans a Swimming' 7 towel swans on a bed

I did not eat any of my cookies until this week. The cookies have mostly been very good. I am thrilled to also own a copy of each recipe. I have already decided which cookies I am going to bake. The event also got me excited about planning an overnight in Amish Country. It helps that every Inn gave away coupons and codes to receive a discount on a stay, all of which expire a year from this month. Though I had a great time, I am not sure I will do the tour again any time soon. While it was definitely worth it, it was just a really long day. My advice for future tours is to stay in the area.

I enjoyed the tour. It allowed me to explore parts of Amish Country I have not previously visited. Previous to this trip, I visited the same places every time. For information on those stops check out my post titled, 'Home of the Original Green Lifestyle'. During the tour I stopped at two cities new to me; Strasburg and Dundee, Ohio. I have also never spent the night in Amish Country, so being able to check out rooms in the area was exciting. There is so much variety from the coziest bed & breakfast or cabin to family size lodges and standard hotels. Check out the Christmas Cookie Tour of Inns website for next year's event.

Me in the lobby of Berlin Resort

Swiss Heritage Winery
 6011 Old Rte 39 NW
Dover, Ohio 44622 

I have to quickly mention the winery I visited. I love Ohio wine so I am surprised that I hadn't made it to this place before now, especially since it is directly across from another winery I frequent often, Breitenbach Wine Cellars. Swiss heritage is located inside Broad Run Cheesehouse. The tastings were five for a dollar. They also had a bar full of complimentary cheese, spreads and crackers to eat while we tasted. We fell in love with the Cherry wine and a sweet red called Dog Gone Good. In addition to the normal white options I also tried some interesting flavors such as Watermelon and Red Raspberry. 

We left with some cheese, the Cherry and Dog Gone Good wine. I also bought a few fashion items from their fashion section. They had a lot of jewelry items and beautiful scarves. This is a place you must definitely visit if you are in the area. The wine is interesting and it is a great place to find gifts for wine lovers, foodies and fashionistas.

Broad Run Cheesehouse & Swiss Heritage Winery

 
until next time  
Be blessed! Be free! 
Be Adventurous!