.jpeg)
Snuggle up with some holiday cheer as OnMilwaukee shares stories of everything merry and bright in the spirit of the season.
The OnMilwaukee Ho Ho Holiday Guide is brought to you by Harley-Davidson Museum and MolsonCoors.
The Holler House, 2042 W. Lincoln Ave., is a festive spot all year ‘round, but it’s absolutely overfloweth with merriment during the holiday season.
Just about every inch of the tavern and the bowling alley in the lower level is decked out with mostly vintage ornaments, villages, two fully decorated trees, strings of lights, tinsel, twinkle and more.
Owner Catherine Haefke starts decorating before Thanksgiving so she’s ready for the 15 holiday parties that are already booked.
“I’m very blessed to have friends who help me,” says Haefke. “It’s a lot of work.”
Many of the decorations belonged to Haefke’s mom, Marcy, who loved Christmastime. The village houses behind the bar were prized possessions of Marcy’s and she purchased the two-foot elves 65 years ago for $5 at Stein’s Home & Garden.
“My mom could decorate forever,” says Haefke, who lost her mother five years ago at the age of 93. “She was a true free spirit. In 1954, she had me, and also tended bar here. It was unheard of for women to be customers at most bars much less work in one.”
Marcy was also responsible for starting the tradition that’s led to hundreds of customers’ bras that – during the non-holiday season – hang from the tavern’s ceilings.
“I took most of them down for the holidays,” says Haefke. “I have five bags of bras in the back I’ll put back up in February.”
Today, the fifth generation of the family is muddling the Old Fashioneds behind the bar and setting the pins in the alleys. Haefke's grandchildren attend college and work on weekends and during school breaks at Holler House.
Holler House, which turns 117 years old next year and features the oldest sanctioned bowling alley in the United States, has two antique lanes that require human pinsetters. Over the years, the uniqueness of the tavern and lanes attracted celebrities like Jack White, Larry The Cable Guy, Lindsey Stirling and the indie band Beach House.
“Beach House came here with 40 people on a bus. Their plan was to stay for an hour and they stayed for six hours and bought every T-shirt I had,” says Haefke. “They had a ball.”
Holler House hosts bowling leagues three nights a week – men’s, women’s and couples – and offers open bowling sessions. Call ahead to book the lanes and to make sure there’s an available pinsetter.
“Some of those kids at the bar right now worked here as pinsetters. They’re 22 or 23 now, so they’re done setting pins, but they worked here for five or more years,” says Haefke. “Really good kids.”
Holler House is open six days a week; closed on Mondays. It usually opens for happy hour during the week and 11 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. But, it’s always best to call ahead.
“Really, we open when we feel like it,” says Haefke.
The holidays are a special time for the Holler House family, but Haefke says they maintain the Christmas spirit all year long.
“My family has always been very well-known and well-liked and that’s a lot to be proud of. I’m not saying that in a conceited way, but my parents and grandparents and now us, we really embrace this place and treat it like our second home,” says Haefke.
“We take care of people here. Our customers have slept on our couch. We’ve fed them many meals. That’s just how I was raised.”
Follow Holler House on Facebook. Holler House will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, but will open at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
