Ocean City Holiday House Tour Tickets Nearly Gone for December Event

Ocean City will hold its third annual Holiday House Tour on Dec. 6. Tickets are almost gone. The self-guided event runs three hours, from 5 to 8 p.m., and will feature about a dozen properties scattered across town.

OCNJ History & Culture capped sales at 400 tickets. They received requests for around 2,000, but several properties can't handle that many visitors at once.

"We had requests for about 2,000 tickets, but we have a capacity problem," said Sne Avichal, a founding board member in the OCNJ History & Culture group and innkeeper at Scarborough Inn, according to OCNJ Daily. "Some of these houses are a bit small, so we decided to cap it at 400. It's busy, but it's not hectic. I think anything more in some of these small homes would get overwhelmed."

Participants check in at Scarborough Inn at 720 Ocean Ave. There they get wristbands and a list of sites to visit. Guests move at their own speed during the evening.

OCNJ History & Culture started as a Facebook page called "Ocean City Old Home Lovers." Members began meeting for porch parties at Scarborough Inn, which sparked the idea to create an organization and start these tours.

"After a handful of those porch parties, we got the idea of drumming up interest in old homes by having a holiday home tour," Avichal said.

Over 1,300 homes in this area have stood for at least 100 years. Most properties on the tour are Victorian and Edwardian style. Some were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s.

"Almost everybody, even people who are born and raised here, said they had no idea that Ocean City had this many homes that were historic," Avichal said. "There's a mythology that Ocean City used to have old homes, but they're all mostly demolished and gone now."

A reception in the Garden Room at Flanders Hotel wraps up the night. Built in 1923, the building will serve a hot chocolate bar, tea, and snacks for attendees.

The organization won't share residential locations beforehand to prevent early viewing. Confirmed businesses on the route include Scarborough Inn, Flanders Hotel, Stainton's, The Shoppes on Asbury inside the former Crown Bank building, and Coastal Chateau Hotel.

Tickets were marketed to subscribers of the Friends of OCNJ History & Culture newsletter.