Families tour holiday-decorated mansion at Hart Park’s ‘Cowboys and Carols’

Visitors climb the stairs of the Hart Mansion decorated for the holidays as part of the Cowboys and Carols Open House at William S. Hart Park in Newhall on Saturday, December 1, 2018. Dan Watson/The Signal
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With Santa Claus seated at one end of Hart Hall and the Valencia High School Choir standing at the other end, visitors to William S. Hart Regional Park took part in the festivities at “Cowboys and Carols” on Saturday.

This annual event, organized by the Friends of Hart Park, gave families the opportunity to visit Hart’s mansion for free while decorated for the holiday season. Prior fundraising resulted in “Cowboys and Carols,” which also acknowledged Hart’s birthday on Dec. 6, said Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste.

“This would have brought great joy to Bill Hart,” Weste said, “because he would probably never have envisioned the hundreds of thousands of people that come here.”

Choir members sang “Jingle Bells,” “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” and other songs as families walked through Hart Hall. Parents and children ate cookies, drank coffee or hot chocolate, and children sat for pictures with or wrote letters to Santa. Weste said by next year, the idea is to completely decorate the hall to resemble Santa’s village, with caroling and other holiday activities.

Dominic Molina, 10 months, sits with Santa at Hart Hall as part of the Cowboys and Carols Open House at William S. Hart Park in Newhall on Saturday, December 1, 2018. Dan Watson/The Signal

Shuttles then picked up park visitors going to the mansion.

Zoe and Sam Alexander brought their 3-year-old son Griffin to the park for their first visit together. As someone who loves horses and cowboys, his parents agreed the mansion was perfect for their son.

“We’d love to now come during the daytime,” Zoe said. “It’s very festive too, whoever decided to decorate all this – it was a good idea.”

Though he was nervous to see Santa, Griffin marveled at the decorations and western motif of Hart’s home, from the dumbwaiter to the cowhides.

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