A large wooden buck, complete with impressive antlers, lounges on a bed in the Stewartsville, Mo., home of Tabitha and Jason Yount.

It is the focal point of a hunting-themed downstairs bedroom. The buck overshadows the walls with chocolate brown paint and white wainscotting, the wooden gun case, the comfy chair and the real deer head.

“I leave him here on the bed all the time,” Ms. Yount says.

For the holidays, the buck is surrounded by greenery and is just one of the surprises that await visitors to the Yount home during the 2008 Stewartsville Garden Club Christmas Homes Tour on Dec. 6. The tour, in its third year, will be from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will feature six homes. Tickets are $8 if purchased in advance at various Stewartsville businesses or from garden club members or $10 at the door. According to Juanita Hovenga, garden club president, tickets will be available for purchase at each home on the tour. Maps showing where the homes are located also will be available.

“It’s actually a fundraiser for community betterment projects,” Ms. Hovenga says of the homes tour, adding that despite bad weather, last year’s tour attracted a good crowd.

The Yount home also was open to tour visitors last year, and Ms. Yount estimates 125 people visited her home, a full-split level, that she and her husband remodeled.

When they purchased the home, it had been open to the elements for about two years. The basement, where the hunting-themed bedroom is located, was under a foot of water.

Now the home is decorated for another holiday, and like the wooden buck, there are surprises. One is in the living room, where an upside-down Christmas tree hangs in front of the picture window. Decked out in red and gold, its inverted base is surrounded by several poinsettia.

“I have a tree in every room or greenery,” Ms. Yount says.

In her daughters’ room, monkey’s frolic on fuchsia colored walls and a palm tree stands behind the headboard of the bed. But it’s the white tree shimmering in the corner that captures the eye, With its bright, jeweled colored decorations, white lights and bold blue cone tree-topper, it’s hard to miss.

“I look for the extraordinary,” Ms. Yount says.

She also likes the traditional, as evidenced by the tree in the master bedroom. Like the living room tree, it glistens with gold and red decorations and white lights.

Of course, there is more to see at the Yount home. as well as the other homes on the tour. For more information about the event, contact Ms. Yount at (816) 669-3639; Ms. Hovenga at (816) 669-8166; Kaye Thomas at (816) 669-3500; Mary Shoemaker at (816) 669-3719; or Francis Whitmer at (816) 669-3574.

Lifestyles reporter Cathy Woolridge can be reached at cathyw@npgco.com

Other holiday homes tours

Platte City, Mo.: Xi Zeta Upsilon Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi presents the 11th annual Christmas Homes Tour, 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 6, $10, contact Tina Pitman at (816) 914-6182 for more information.

Atchison, Kan.: Home for the Holidays Tour, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 5, and 6, presented by Atchison Retired School Personnel, $12, tickets available at the Atchison Visitors Center, call (800) 234-1854 or log on to www.atchisonkansas.net/v_holiday homes.ht