The Cassina Garden Club lists this year's Annual Christmas Bake Sale for Saturday, December 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Hamilton Plantation Historic Tabby Cabins on Gascoigne Bluff. That's six hours on the calendar. Ahead of last year's sale, club President Sally Chao told The Brunswick News that most items usually sell out not long after noon.
So most of the buying happens in one busy morning in a garden at 1195 Arthur J. Moore Drive, just outside the entrance to Epworth by the Sea. The shoppers who line up early end up paying for the upkeep of a site on the National Register of Historic Places. On any other week of the year, neighbors can visit that same site for free, with no line at all.
Why the Line Forms Before the Doors Open
The pace comes from the way the club runs the sale. Everything is handmade by Cassina members, who work late into the day on Friday to have it ready. Nothing is sold before the opening, so there are no early pickups and no holds for friends. Chao told The Brunswick News that the early arrivals "get their pick," and many people show up early, lining up through the garden in front of the cabins.
The club didn't seem worried about running short on variety. Vice President Pam Eastman said in that same 2025 preview that around 550 individual items sold the year before. The club's own event page lists cakes, pies, breads, and cookies, plus holiday gifts such as toasted pecans, jellies, and jams. Five hundred and fifty items sounds like a lot until you set it against a line that wraps through a garden. Then it's easy to see how the tables are mostly bare by lunch while the posted hours still have three hours left.
The bigger change this year is the schedule. The Brunswick News gave 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for last year's sale on December 13, the date Coastal Illustrated listed for the 2025 sale. For 2026, the club lists 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the sale, with the interpretive cabin open for tours from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The cabin still closes at 2, so the extra hour only adds time on the grounds. It doesn't add any baking.
An 1830s Christmas, Minus the Tinsel
Shoppers who get there early have time to look at the setting, and the club decorates it with a rule in mind. Bake sale co-chair Linda Sanders told The Brunswick News that the decorations stay close to what would have been available in the 1830s, when the cabins housed enslaved people. Electric lights and tinsel are out. Christmas trees, holly boughs, poinsettias, magnolia flowers and leaves, ribbons, and fiber art are in.
"It's very inviting. It's like a Christmas wonderland."
Linda Sanders, bake sale co-chair, speaking to The Brunswick News
The decorating rule matches the way the buildings were restored. From 2014 to 2018, the club worked with Landmark Preservation, LLC to restore one cabin to how it would have looked in 1830. The other was restored to its look in the Lumber Days, when it served as an office or a school. Past president Dottie Fielder described the difference to The Brunswick News. The first cabin would have housed two enslaved families who shared a central hearth, with tabby and dirt floors and wall openings closed by wooden board shutters. The second has wood floors, glass windows, and plantation shutters.
That's why the interpretive cabin hours matter on sale day. Standing in line puts you a few steps from two different chapters of the same buildings.
What a Pie Pays For
The money raised supports the club's programs. Eastman called Cassina more of a service organization than a garden club, because so much of its work goes beyond gardening. The club names the Christmas bake sale and its spring garden walk as its two annual fundraisers for looking after the cabins and grounds.
The big project is finished. Fielder told The Brunswick News that restoring the two cabins and adding interpretive signage cost more than $400,000 in all. The upkeep never finishes. The cabins are on the National Register of Historic Places, so repairs have to use period-appropriate materials to keep their historic integrity. Ava White, who leads the cabin docents and education program, added that the grounds hold several garden plots with plants that mattered in different periods, either because they were popular or because they had practical uses such as medicine.
Those costs build on a long record of stewardship:
| Year | What happened at the cabins |
|---|---|
| 1793 | James Hamilton develops Hamilton Plantation, one of the largest cotton plantations on St. Simons |
| Around 1830 | Six tabby cabins are built overlooking the Frederica River; two still stand |
| 1870s to 1900s | The "Mill Days," when the structures served as mill offices and other uses |
| 1932 | Glynn County Commissioners let the Cassina Garden Club begin meeting in the cabins |
| 1950 | The county deeds the property to the club |
| 1988 | The cabins are placed on the National Register of Historic Places |
| 2014 to 2018 | Restoration with Landmark Preservation, LLC |
| 2018 | The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation gives the club its "Outstanding Preservation" Award |
| 2023 | Garden quadrants are researched and replanted to reflect island history |
| September 2025 | Interpretive signs with QR codes add self-guided video tours |
The club's history page also notes that after the Mill Days ended, one cabin remained the home of a formerly enslaved woman until her death. The other sat empty until the club arrived in 1932. Fielder told Golden Isles Magazine that in 1932 the cabins "had just been sitting here rotting." The club asked the county if it could meet there, cleaned them up, and "became the keepers of the cabins."
Saturday, December 12, Hour by Hour
With the club's posted times and last year's sell-out pattern side by side, the day falls into a clear order:
- Before 9 a.m. The line forms through the garden in front of the cabins. Nothing is sold early.
- 9 a.m. The sale opens, and so does the interpretive cabin for tours.
- Late morning. The best-known items go first, which is why people line up early.
- Shortly after noon. Going by last year, most of the baking is gone.
- 2 p.m. The interpretive cabin closes to tours.
- 3 p.m. The sale's posted closing time.
If you're coming for a holiday pie, plan on the morning. If you mainly want to see the cabin, the afternoon still works, as long as you get there before 2.
The Same Cabins on a Quiet Wednesday
The sale is the busiest day on Gascoigne Bluff, but the cabins aren't saved for one Saturday. The club offers docent-led tours every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon. Admission is always free, and donations are welcome. Every club member learns the history of the buildings so they can give tours when asked.
For mid-island neighbors, there are a few ways to visit without a docent or a crowd:
- Self-guided video tours. The QR-code signs installed in September 2025 play the cabins' and garden's history any time you stop by.
- The gardens. They're open every day for walking, biking, or exploring.
- The spring garden walk. The club's other major fundraiser, the Tabby & Tillandsia Garden Walk, is set for April 24, 2027, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
In the gardens, holly bushes anchor each of the quadrants. Holly boughs are part of the club's 1830s-style Christmas decorations, and on an ordinary weekday the holly in these quadrants is simply there to see. The club was founded in 1928, and Fielder told Golden Isles Magazine it will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2028. Every December pie sold between now and then helps keep the cabins standing when that anniversary arrives.
Part of what makes Mid-South St. Simons feel like home is knowing traditions like this one, from when to get in line on December 12 to which Wednesday morning to bring visiting family to Gascoigne Bluff. If you'd like more of that neighbor-to-neighbor local knowledge, or have a question about life on this part of the island, Lori Lynn would love to hear from you. Let's Connect.
