For those of us in Cherokee County who love to decorate even more than we love to shop, the holiday season officially begins this weekend.

The Junior Service League of Woodstock's 13th Annual Holiday Tour of Homes is the first and the longest-running home tour in the community.

This year's event offers up four homes making their tour debut: The Allison Home in Woodstock Downtown, The Thomas Home in Towne Lake Hills North, The Tirotta Home in the Falls of Cherokee (the first appearance for their neighborhood, too) and The Tripodo Home in BridgeMill.

Doors will be open at each from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and visitors can start at any home.

Tickets are $17 in advance and $20 at the door. Advance tickets are for sale this week at the BP?in Towne Lake, Christine's Creations and FoxTale Book Shoppe in Woodstock, Fun Finds in Canton and Funky Monkey in BridgeMill.

The tour is the league's signature fundraiser and provides thousands of dollars to support children's charities in the community. The tour attracts more than 1,500 visitors every year.

Special touches this year will include apple cider at The Tripodo Home, Towne Lake Arts Center carolers on Saturday at The Allison Home and Girl Scout carolers on Sunday at The Tirotta Home. Decorations at many of the homes also will be for sale by the designers.

The Allison Home on Wheeler Street offers a unique perspective as a town home in the hip Woodstock Downtown neighborhood.

Previously featured in Traditional Home magazine as the home of an imagined professional woman, the 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath home now belongs to a real professional woman: designer Shelia Allison. She and colleague Christine Blight, owner of Christine's Creations, collaborated on the decor, which blends Old World and contemporary styles.

Tour patrons will see how to mix heirlooms, such as vintage glass ornaments passed down by Ms. Allison's grandmother, with new decorations and elements from the outdoors for a fresh look.

The designers made creative use of Ms. Allison's nutcracker collection ("look for the teeth marks" on the ones from her childhood), which marches up the stair's tread edges and gathers on landings. Other highlights: a vintage birdcage filled with fresh flowers and metallic birds' nests and a decorated Parisian courtyard.

The Thomas House on Morning Mist Way has received a full makeover for the tour by Shelley Herod and Colleen Crumpton of Designing Women in Towne Lake.

The duo not only created a holiday look for the 6,600-square-foot, six-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath home, but also gave it new flooring and wall treatments, with window treatments and upholstery work by homeowner Rebecca Thomas.

The holiday decor intensifies from muted elegance in the formal rooms, to a warm red-and-green traditional feel in family rooms to the brightest element in the house: a hot pink Christmas tree covered in electric-hued glittering ornaments much to the delight of the Thomases' daughter whose room it adorns.

The Tirotta Home on Wellington Falls Way combines elegant contemporary and whimsical retro styles while complimenting the grand European design of the existing decor in the 5,300-square-foot, five-bedroom and five-and-a-half-bath home.

Nicole Flint of Divine Living Interiors in Canton based her additions on the style and taste of the homeowners, with traditional, warm colors and decorations in the more formal spaces, with gilded and "iced" natural touches. In the heart of the home, a kitchen-breakfast nook-great room looking onto the outdoor living space and pool, clever ideas to "borrow" abound like the picture frame greeting card holder and the countertop hot chocolate station.

Nature is the star of the decor at The Tripodo Home on Bridgemill Avenue. Mother-daughter designers Margie Yoder and Mahria Heller of Coastal Interiors in Towne Lake and Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., are decorating seven live Christmas trees provided by Buck Jones Nursery to be displayed inside as well as six trees outside. While natural elements will dominate, two artificial trees as well as touches of glitter appear throughout the home as well.

Along with decking the halls for the holidays, the designers created new window treatments for the 4,000-plus-square-foot, five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath home and faux painted the kitchen cabinets with a deeper wood grain.

For more information about the tour, call (770) 856-7004 or see the Web site at www.jslwoodstock.org.