Wonderland at Angus Barn: Grieving sisters started one of Raleigh's most beloved holiday traditions

Stepping into Angus Barn at Christmas time is one of Raleigh's most memorable holiday experiences. The glitzy, twinkling wonderland has grown each year since the tradition began around 20 years ago – culminating in more than 20,000 decorations and weeks of work from Santa's elves.

Snagging a reservation to view the dazzling display is competitive this time of year, so Angus Barn keeps the lights up well into the New Year, hoping to ensure everyone can experience the magic.

The wonderland has become a regular tradition for many locals – a tradition began through the holiday spirit of two sisters who, at the time, had just lost their parents, and a tradition that has continued through the passion of community volunteers.

Angus Barn, after all, has always been about community.

Shining light into a time of sorrow

For decades, the decorations at Angus Barn were simple and humble. A tragic loss and a time of grief pushed two sisters to shine a light.

"We used to always have one tree in the lobby and the mantle. My mother would always do that," said Van Eure, the restaurant's current owner, daughter of the Angus Barn's founder.

After her father passed away in 1988 and her mother in 1997, Eure's sister, Shelly Belk, became the inspiration behind the new holiday tradition at Angus Barn.

"My sister and I took our families to the Greenbrier for Christmas," Eure said. "Every room was decorated. My sister, God bless her, says, 'Oh, Van, there's no reason Angus Barn can't do this, too!'"

They looked to other classic and beautiful North Carolina places for ideas: the Biltmore Estate, Grove Park Inn, the Greenbrier – all with fully-decorated rooms, each section with a different theme and color palate.

"We started small, and then, it just grew and grew and grew," Eure said.

A community effort brings the holiday spirit

At first, Eure said she had the Angus Barn employees help with the ever-growing decorations, but it eventually became too much.

"God love them, they couldn't decorate all day and come to work all night," Eure said.

One of her neighbors made Eure an offer, saying she had a group of women who really wanted to help decorate. At first, Eure was hesitant to accept because she knew exactly how challenging the decorating process was.

"You're on ladders, scaffolding, using hammers, electric screwdrivers – this is hardcore decorating," Eure said. "But these girls came up – and wow! They were awesome workers."

Now, the Angus Barn has a group of around 20 women and five men, all perfectionists, who serve as Santa's elves and transform the barn into a magical holiday wonderland each year.

One year, Eure says they were inspired to try hanging nearly 30,000 colorful Christmas ball ornaments from the ceiling. The result was breathtaking and colorful – but it took way more work and decorations than she'd realized.

"There are 29,700 balls," she said. "We had to put up beams, netting, cotton, lights, and learn the hard way to how to make it work."

Each year, the decor and themes for each room is a little bit different. The main entryway has thousands of colorful Christmas balls hanging from the ceiling. Nutcrackers tucked into greenery climb the windowsill. Upside-down Christmas trees cling like stalactites in the rafters. A toy train chugs along on a floating track that circles overhead. Rustic wooden windows are cloaked in holly, and kids eat gingerbread beneath giant glowing peppermints.

"One room is the Candy Cane Room. The front store may be decorated with more rustic items, like red apples and green foliage and simple, white lights," Eure said.

A spiral staircase takes guests to an underground chamber of glowing, white Christmas lights, silver garland, gold tinsel – like something out of a classic Burl Ives song.

It takes five weeks to put everything up – and another two weeks to carefully take it down and store it for next Christmas.

Family and community: Growing up at the Angus Barn

Angus Barn is one of the fanciest restaurants in Raleigh – but it's in a literal barn, and its success was very questionable in the beginning.

"My father had run into his old college friend. They both had just gotten back from military service, and neither had a job," said Eure. "They decided Raleigh needed a restaurant."

When the men started looking for land, they decided on 150 acres on a tiny, 2-lane country road, far away from Raleigh and Durham.

"There wasn't even an airport yet, just a landing strip. Raleigh was way far that way, and Durham was way far that way," said Eure. "The bank wouldn't loan them the money because they said a restaurant this far in the country would never work. Both their wives cried and thought they were idiots."

Her grandfather, the Secretary of State at the time, put his house up for collateral – and the rest is history. Angus Barn was considered by many to be a Raleigh treasure.

Eure spent her childhood at Angus Barn.

"It was a different life," she said. "In the beginning, they couldn't even afford a babysitter. We were at work with them until they went home. They'd bring us dinner."

Her parents taught her the value of hard work and earning money for herself at a young age. She spent her childhood playing down by the lake where the pavilion is now, and she worked at Angus Barn.

"It was a great way to be raised," she said. "My parents eventually put a restaurant-style kitchen in our house, and they would practice recipes for months until they got it perfect. Every recipe came from their kitchen."

The famous chocolate Chess Pie came from an old church cookbook, then her mom altered it and tweaked it and made it her own.

Eure followed in her mother's footsteps – creating the famous pound cake recipe with her son.

"My son and I made every pound cake recipe known to man. We made so many. We were taking them to the neighbors. We ate so much pound cake trying to get that recipe right!" she said. "We wanted it to be perfect."

She says the holiday decorations are part of an overarching belief in giving back to the community.

"My Dad was a really strong believer in, if you're going to drive your income from the community, you have to give back," she said. "This was even before they started their own foundation. His employees knew that he loved them, and they'd be so taken care of here. He was the first restaurant in the country to have insurance and a 401K plan for the employees."

When the Angus Barn burned down to the ground, he kept staff employed through the process of rebuilding – and to this day, the family follows a tradition of taking care of every single staff member and being active in the community.

In return, the personality and flair of the community can literally be seen on the walls of the Angus Barn. Many of those quirky, rustic, antique items that make the barn's decoration so unique – like the phone booth, the wild turkeys, the gun collection, the photos – many of them are gifts from the community.

"People bring us personal or historic items they inherit from their grandparents or find in their parents' attic," she said. "They bring them to us to become part of our collection."

From the holiday lights to the family-owned recipes to the decorations on the walls – the Angus Barn is literally a reflection of the community itself. That may just be why so many people make it part of their Christmas traditions.