Feature

By Lucy Erdelac with photos by Jenny Lynn

Ron Peck is a collector’s collector, living surrounded by art and culture with occasional antiquities from China, Greece, and India. Buddha mingles with Balinese puppets and (from the movie set of Cleopatra) a sunglasseswearing sarcophagus. Every inch of wall, shelf, alcove, and hearth tells a story— part period, part fun—as does Ron’s twin stairs, the legacy of conjoined sister houses from the 1840s.

At Ron’s house, decorating for the winter holidays starts in October. His eclectic ensemble meets an equally diverse collection of festive decor and represents cultures from around the world. Two months of layering ornaments, ribbons, greenery, and berries add lighthearted joy. No two rooms are similar, yet each imparts the spirit of the season and a feeling of peace. Every year, Ron decorates each room differently than the year before, then each is photographed and catalogued. In so doing, his holiday home is reconfigured yet made whole by the sum of its parts.

Rather than subscribing to a particular system of belief, Ron celebrates all traditions based in compassion, kindness, and love. In his world, Dickens and Yuletide; Father Christmas and Guan Yin; and the gods and goddesses of the seasons reign equal.

One of the most compelling delights is Ron’s assemblage of vintage toys, each still wearing love from the child who owned it more than a century ago.

Pre-COVID, Ron’s holiday party was the event of Gaskill Street—the lights on his three-story tree outshone only by his jovial entrance as Father Christmas. ■

Handcrafted by Ron Peck, Dashing Through the Snow is just one of his holiday-themed dioramas displayed on walls and shelves throughout his home. Each of his miniature, three-dimensional story scenes are showcased in custom frames behind museum glass. More than five dozen of Ron’s dioramas have been sold to collectors.

Tucked within interior walls grows a three-story serenity garden, its stones and perennials bedecked with silver ornaments suggesting snow and simple offerings to Bacchus, the god of wine. In Greek mythology, this son of Zeus died each winter and was born again each spring.

Throughout his home, Ron captures the spirit of the season, but perhaps never more so than in a quiet, skylit alcove where stands a shimmering silver wall and hidden deep within it, the Sleeping Beauty of Winter. Prominently perched in Ron’s reading room is Guan Yin. According to East Asian belief, Guan Yin symbolically represents kindness, compassion, and love. Neither male nor female, it reminds us to be as gentle with ourselves as Guan Yin is in holding the reindeer. Indigenous people of the Arctic believe that reindeers are spirits of endurance and teachers of adaptability. Queen Villagers, however, prefer to believe in the magic of Rudolf’s red nose.

A century of toys from Santa’s workshop.

Our neighborhood’s charm peeks through in the retelling of a holiday classic.

In 1843, Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol. In 2011, Ron Peck retold the tale with a neighborly twist. Ron and his family decked halls (and the stores of 2nd Street) in Dickensian style.

The Ghost of Christmas Present peeking out from the book’s cover is none other than its author Ron Peck.

Working from home isn’t new since COVID. Back in the day, Ebenizer Scrooge turned Peck’s dining room into his office.

A Christmas Carol in Philadelphia is available at headhousebooks.com. ■