After a day spent on planes, in airports, and amid crowds, Dennis and Stephanie Farias have finally made it to the tiny town of Badin where Stephanie’s parents live. It’s almost midnight on Christmas Eve, and at the end of their long trip from Nevada, the couple approaches the 1913 Badin Inn, a three-story, white structure with a wraparound veranda. Wreaths with red bows hang on the windows, seasonal pillows rest on outdoor rockers, and lights spiral around the classic columns, their twinkles reflected in 100-year-old windowpanes. When the couple steps inside the Stanly County landmark, they’re greeted by a well-dressed Christmas tree, a life-size nutcracker, and a portrait of Santa above the fireplace, and they can finally relax and enjoy the holiday.

After previous iterations as golf clubs, the Badin Inn exudes warmth and liveliness and serves as a setting for guests to make treasured memories. photograph by Joey Seawell

“We’re so relieved to be here. It’s like we’ve come home,” Dennis says. Stephanie agrees. “It may be late when we get in, but the innkeepers even have Christmas music playing. The lobby is decorated and all lit up.” After they enjoy a few midnight snacks, they’ll make their way to their room, where vintage furniture harks back to the era in which the inn was built. It’s all been lovingly selected by the women who make this place a home away from home.

Innkeepers Vanessa Mullinix and her daughter Jennifer Owens host visitors year-round, and come Christmastime, they transform the inn into a festive respite. Relatives visiting locals fill the inn during the holiday season, which is why Mullinix and Owens make the space as cozy and inviting as possible.

It takes Vanessa Mullinix (left) and her daughter Jennifer Owens weeks to transform the 1913 Badin Inn into a Christmas wonderland. photograph by Joey Seawell

Over the past few weeks, the women have lugged 16-foot garlands down three flights of stairs to hang above the French doors at the front and side of the inn. They’ve filled urns on the veranda with branches. They’ve woven evergreen sprays around each chandelier.

“Instead of decorating our own homes, we spend two weeks with our incredible staff hanging greenery and lights,” Owens says. “Mom and I even take the golf cart up behind the inn to gather branches of pine and cedar, magnolia and nandina.” The pair and their staff spend countless hours making the inn feel like home for those who left theirs for the holidays.

Mullinix, Owens, and the inn’s staff pour their hearts into decorating the inn with cozy Christmas touches to make it feel like home. photograph by Joey Seawell

“Of course, everybody has a full plate at Christmas, and our families don’t get enough credit for the patience and understanding they show us,” Owens says.

Their guests might wonder: How do these women celebrate the holidays when they spend all their time making a beautiful space for everyone else’s Christmas celebrations? Before the welcome chaos of the holidays begins, the women fortify themselves, body and soul, by connecting with their loved ones back home in Alamance County.

• • •

Here’s what that looks like: After a prayer of heartfelt thanks for God’s blessings, a line of hungry people winds around rows of tables inside a cozy cabin. Mullinix and Owens are surrounded by extended family, as they are every year on the second Saturday in December. That’s when the two women and their husbands return to Mullinix’s hometown of Burlington for a Christmas celebration near the homeplace where Stephen and Violet Wilson raised her and her 11 siblings. Those siblings, their spouses, children, grandchildren, cousins, and close friends — well over a hundred people — come from near and not so far, carrying platters and bowls of food. Hearty greetings and hugs abound, even for first-time attendees, including slightly overwhelmed fiancés.

Near the Burlington home where Stephen and Violet Wilson raised their 12 kids, more than a hundred relatives gather to celebrate Christmas. photograph by Joey Seawell

Across the yard, folks balancing plates filled with home-cooked delicacies head toward Santa’s sleigh and a freshly cut Christmas tree. They settle at a dozen or more tables under a shelter built by Mullinix’s older brother, Mike. Four generations savor family memories and share news of the year almost gone.

Though she’s 70 now, Mullinix is still greeted with a bear hug from Mike. Her eyes brim with tears as she tries to express her thanks for all he’s done to make this reunion possible.

Back when Mullinix and her siblings were young, Christmas Eves were spent at Staley Memorial Baptist Church up the hill from their home. Afterward, the kids would race back, knowing that Santa — a friend of their parents — would be waiting to hear their last-minute wishes and that the table would be covered with desserts. “My whole childhood was a party,” Mullinix says.

Hadley Huckabee scoring some valuable face time with Santa. photograph by Joey Seawell

After the children had grown up and their parents had died, the house sat empty and quiet. Christmas gatherings moved a few miles away, to where Mike had first built a log cabin for his daughter’s wedding reception in 2002. A few years later, he added an expansive picnic shelter to the venue so the ever-growing family could gather in comfort.

“Being with my family always brings so much joy and gratitude,” Owens says. “I’m grateful for the lessons from my aunts and others that created a special place in my heart for hosting.”

Like Mike, who provided a gathering place for the family’s cherished tradition, Mullinix and Owens want to do the same for those who come to their Badin inn for the holidays.

• • •

As a young woman, Mullinix married and moved to Albemarle, where Owens was born. The couple later divorced, but Mullinix stayed, working at the local cotton mill, then the aluminum plant. In 1993, she married a man with deep Stanly County roots, and she eventually opened Cottage House Antiques. Her congenial manner turned the cozy retail space into a gathering spot where she would share the stories of Badin with curious customers.

She told them about the French industrialists who came to this region in 1912 to build a town, an aluminum smelting plant — the same one where she’d worked — and a giant concrete dam and powerhouse on the nearby Yadkin River. She pointed out the French influence visible in the town’s curving streets, in the distinctive rooflines of neighborhood quadraplexes, and, most notably, in a three-story white building among the pines. It was then known as the Badin Club House, where bachelor engineers and the plant’s office staff once lived.

Mullinix (standing behind a portrait of her parents) gathers for the holidays with seven of her siblings and their spouses at a cabin and pavilion that her brother Mike Wilson built. photograph by Joey Seawell

It eventually became Stanly County Country Club, and later the Badin Inn Golf Club, a popular community gathering place where Owens wound up working as a server in her early 20s. The golf course struggled and eventually closed in 2017, and the building stood vacant for about two years. Owens watched its gradual decline and hoped that someone would save the historic property.

“Seeing it become a neglected old building hurt my heart,” she says. “So when Mom approached me in 2019 about buying it, something very unexpected had come full circle.” Mother and daughter, now partners in business, have infused new life into Badin’s history, adapting the storied clubhouse for overnight guests and milestone events.

The family gathers for the holidays at the cabin that Mullinix’s brother Mike Wilson built. photograph by Joey Seawell

“One local family rents a room for Christmas Eve so they can place their gifts under the tree in the lobby and open them in front of the fireplace on Christmas morning,” Owens says. “I love it when families make memories like that at the inn.”

Guests like Dennis and Stephanie Farias are especially grateful for the innkeepers’ revitalization of this hidden gem. “Vanessa and Jennifer have made it possible for us to be comfortable in Badin for the holidays,” Dennis says. This year, the couple looks forward to enjoying the inn’s newly opened 1913 Bistro. “We feel the inn is part of our lives now,” he says. “A Christmas tradition.”

1913 Badin Inn
107 Spruce Street
Badin, NC 28009
(704) 422-1079
1913badininn.com