Bill and Debbie Schmid sure know how to be neighborly. They're opening the doors of their Mt. Lebanon home for a little Christmas cheer next week.

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No, not that kind of cheer. The kind of seasonal spirit the Schmids are handing out will help some young patients at Children's Hospital.

The family is not alone in spreading good will. It is one of seven such families in Mt. Lebanon who will welcome several hundred visitors to their homes as part of Wednesday's popular Holiday House Tour, sponsored by the Howard Hanna Real Estate Co.

The 14th annual tour and luncheon benefits Children's Hospital Free Care Fund. Last year, more than $13,000 was raised for the hospital fund, which makes sure all patients get help, regardless of families' ability to pay.

All the homes on the tour are ones that you notice when you drive by -- and wish you could wangle an invitation to visit.

Rita Will, a real estate broker and planner, said it would be the Schmid home at 1160 Washington Road that would bring in the crowds.

"Oh, it's just all that hammering," said a modest Mrs. Schmid of the inordinate interest in her home.

For the past year, the Schmids' stone, traditional-style -- oh, let's go ahead and call it a mansion-- has been undergoing a massive remodeling. Finishing touches were put in last week.

The Schmids bought their 1942 home in May 2004 and immediately started a remodeling which increased its 3,600 square feet to more than 5,000 square feet by adding a family room and two third floor bedrooms, a bathroom and a sitting room. The renovation reconfigured some of the original rooms and put the garage in the front, then added the half-circle of a so-called governor's driveway. The home's signature two front curved windows had to be replaced, but their size and curve remains, if with mullions this time around.

The family wanted to move from Ridgewood, N.J., to the Pittsburgh area because both Mr. and Mrs. Schmid were raised here, he in Crafton Heights and she in Regent Square. Mr. Schmid is a finance officer with Prudential Inc.

"We wanted to be near other family members and to get the boys into Mt. Lebanon schools," Mrs. Schmid said.

The family has twin sons Jonathan and Matthew, 15, and two daughters, Stephanie, 25, a graduate of Yale, like her father, and a lawyer in Manhattan, and Natalie, 22, a senior at Brown.

"The minute I saw this house, I knew I was home," Mrs. Schmid said.

She said taking part in the tour was also her family's way of "saying thank you" to neighbors and commuters for their patience with noise and construction traffic during the renovation.

Christmas is the perfect time to visit. A festive door wreath with gold bows and purple berries welcomes visitors into a grand foyer, where two giant nutcracker soldiers flank a grandfather clock tucked under a circle of stairs.

A glistening white with gold trim Nativity scene made by Mr. Schmid's artist mother is on the dining room buffet. In the living room, a Santa Claus in regal burgundy robes watches to see who is being good. The four pairs of pewter baby shoes on a shelf were once worn by the Schmid children.

A white frosted tree is trimmed with numerous Santa ornaments; a tradition started after a ski vacation at the Von Trapp family lodge in Vermont.

The family's love of skiing -- decorated skis stand in one corner -- is evident in charming photos throughout and in many decorations.

In the family room, five stockings hang from polished pears on a fireplace made of river rock. A humongous fir in the center of it all was cut down by the family, as part of its holiday tradition. Ornaments hung were collected over the years and silently tell the family's story of special moments over the years.

But perhaps no one decoration is more telling than the simple wooden plaque that hangs unobtrusively near a small mud room at the rear: "And they lived happily ever after."

For questions about the Free Care Fund, call Children's at 412-586-6310.