LEELANAU STATE PARK, MI -- Getting into the holiday spirit creates a certain nostalgia and remembrances of the past.  This year the Grand Traverse Lighthouse at the Leelanau State Park is taking guests back nearly one hundred years to learn about it's Christmas past.

Stefanie Stanley the lighthouse's executive director has been working on getting the historic site ready for the holidays.  "We decorate the entire light house in an old fashioned holiday decor.  And we've used the 1920's and 30's time period to recreate an authentic McCormick family Christmas when the McCormick family use to live here."

The McCormick family resided in the lighthouse from 1922 to 1938.

"We happen to have and know some of the McCormick family members that were still around so they helped us recreate this side of the house to when it was theirs between twenty two and thirty-eight.  So we have first hand accounts as to what happened and where things were located and what Christmas was like."  Said Staley.

It's a chance for the entire family to take a trip to the past including a full 1920's holiday meal.

Staley added, "We have holiday music, we have free refreshments and we have tons of cookies coming in and it's just going to be a great time.  You can wander through the house.  We give you a self guided tour sheet, so as you're walking through each room, you can actually read what was happening during that McCormick family Christmas at that particular time at that particular room."

Stefanie hopes that this trip back in time will be something visitors could perhaps learn from.  "You know you compare it to our Christmases today and their Christmases back then were very different in some senses and things were very simple compared to all the stuff we go through today.  So it's great to see what they use to do and understand that history and preserve that history so that we can maybe do a better job on our own when we do our won holiday seasons.

if you'd like to visit the grand traverse lighthouse's "grand" Christmas on Leelanau Peninsula it will be this Sunday, December 4th from noon to four and be sure you're there when Santa rolls in on a firetruck at 3pm.