All good things must come to an end, the saying goes, and so it is that after 30 years Christmas at the Mansion will usher in its last holiday season.

The time-honored show at the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell has been a crowd-pleasing event through the years as shoppers stroll through the impeccably decorated mansion and browse through displays of crafts and gift items produced by local artisans.

“When we started 30 years ago, we were the first craft show in town,” longtime organizer Nikki Sliter said. Now holiday bazaars are stacked one on top of another throughout the season.

“We never thought in a million years it would last 30 years. The bottom line is, it ran its course,” she said.

The Friday night preview party, a major part of the annual fundraiser, was always a guaranteed sell-out event, but in recent years it has been tougher to attract a full house, Sliter said.

“We have tried to keep a real mix of all crafts,” she said. “A few [vendors] have just done our show, and we appreciate that.”

This will be the last year the mansion will display a live Christmas tree in the grand hall, Sliter said. She always insisted on a fresh tree for the bazaar, and Snow Line Tree Co. has gone to great lengths to search out a proper two-story-tall tree, she said.

From here on out, artificial trees will be part of the decor through the Christmas season.

A special display at this year’s bazaar will be a set of wooden Christmas ornaments handcrafted by Moose and Shirley Miller that were used during the bazaar’s early years.

And a completely restored, almost life-size Nativity scene will be on display. Miriam Emerson volunteered her time to restore each piece. The Nativity set was created and donated to the mansion in the 1980s by Gerene Little, Lois Himsl and Rosalie Heinecke.

Conrad Mansion supporters were searching for ways to raise money in the early 1980s when Lorraine Hanchett, who at the time owned Woodland Floral, saw a similar fundraiser on a trip to Arizona.

Volunteers jumped on the idea but had no money for a lavish display. They wrapped tiny packages in bright holiday paper to decorate that first tree.

“We bought whatever we could afford every year,” Sliter recalled.

When Rita Fitzsimmons, a graphic designer, moved to Sliter’s eastside Kalispell neighborhood in the mid-1980s, she was immediately drafted to help with Christmas at the Mansion.

“We captured her and made her go to work,” Sliter said with a laugh.

Fitzsimmons helped with the bazaar for more than two decades and remains on the mansion board, as does Sliter’s husband Everit, one of many volunteer men who are drafted annually to help with the holiday decorating.

About the same time Sliter and other bazaar organizers were assembling their volunteer force, Christopher Radko began producing heirloom-quality glass Christmas ornaments, and the mansion obtained its first round of collectible ornaments.

When Lynn Redfield, who was director of the Conrad Mansion Museum for many years, died in 2006, the family gave her collection of Radko ornaments and a set of nutcracker ornaments to the mansion.

Bazaar organizers have striven to feature Flathead Valley artisans exclusively, but in recent years some out-of-area Montana vendors have participated.

While it’s sad to see Christmas at the Mansion come to an end, Sliter said it’s really the beginning of something new. The mansion has added several popular fundraising events through the years, such as the Death by Chocolate murder-mystery parties and the recent Buffalo Bash.

Sliter said she’s considering a jewelry show at the mansion, maybe around Valentine’s Day. She’s open to all ideas that will help raise money to preserve the mansion in perpetuity.

Charles E. Conrad, one of Kalispell’s founders, had the Victorian mansion built for his family in 1895. Conrad’s youngest daughter, Alicia Conrad Campbell, donated the mansion to the city of Kalispell in 1974.

“We’re hoping the Conrad Mansion will always be Kalispell’s biggest treasure,” she said. “She’s still a grand lady.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.