The Making Of Christmas Magic

The Making Of Christmas Magic

By LINDA L. AUSTIN

The holiday gene is deeply embedded in Coronadan Teresa Alley. Ride by her house the week after Thanksgiving, and you will see the fully decorated front yard, but that is only a minuscule snapshot of what lies elsewhere. The backyard is also ready for December festivities with lighted candy canes and two 18-inch mice figures, each wearing their Santa cap and a striped suit jacket. Inside, the entire two-story house is festooned with Christmas decorations occupying each flat surface and every nook and cranny. The house transforms into a magical Christmas land.

Full-out decorating followed her mother’s example and started when she was a teenager using her own allowance to buy ornaments to decorate her bedroom tree. With a few ornaments donated by Mom and her great-aunt, Alley proudly opened the blinds to allow her tree to shine for all who passed.

The passion for decorating mushroomed with a Good Housekeeping craft article for an outdoor nativity. With Dad’s help, she scavenged scrap plywood and drew the figures freehand. Woodworking was Dad’s hobby, so cutting the figures out and giving them a white base coat with leftover house paint was all the help she needed. “I drew the detail on it and painted it with acrylics that I bought with my allowance. I was in high school in Coronado… This manger scene out front has been added to, so there were nine original pieces, and then I have made some after I totally refinished the ones that were there, plus finished one of the pieces that was cut out but never done.”

Inside, the Christmas tree takes center stage and deserves every awed comment. Holding court in the same spot her mother had always placed it, the tree sparkles, which is not by chance. Alley meticulously decorates it last with mostly vintage ornaments.

Some ornaments have their permanent place each year. “The tree has the guardian of the tree. That’s the Ice Fairy, and she sits about 2/3 of the way up.” She is hung last, right after the first officer, the Mistletoe Fairy, who resides nearby. “I mean, I just make this stuff up, but I’ve always felt that way.” Both fairies are Hallmark, over 40 years old, and retain their original names.

Alley talks to the ornaments as she hangs them. They have become friends. Asked about her favorite ornament, she said she has no favorite of anything. “So even if it’s an inanimate object, it’s something almost living to me, so how can you pick a favorite… Every ornament on the tree is important to me, not because I’m sentimental. It’s because it’s a thing.”

Besides the two special fairies, “There’re other ornaments that belong in certain places on the tree. And they’re ornaments that I say, ‘Well, it’s your turn to be in the front, and it’s your turn to be in the back. And I’ll sit out here and have a nightcap when everybody’s in bed and just sit by the tree. Most of the ornaments don’t have a special place other than the big ornaments. They have to go in the center, and you work out as you decorate.”

Since the tree is next to the front door, entering guests sometimes brush it, which makes the tree jingle. She hangs the oldest ones, Jim’s grandmother’s and her greatgrandmother’s bells, near the top. “I guess it’s (the oldest) my greatgrandmother’s, a bell, a little red nothing bell. Really ancient, but it has a real clapper on it. My grandmother was born in the 1800s.”

Alley admits she is particular about her decorating and does not want any help. “My mother used to do the same thing. ‘Keep your paws off my stuff!’ My theory is I’m very fussy about how you decorate the tree. You have to do it that way to get that many ornaments on the tree.

“I know exactly how I want the tree to look, like every tinsel. I have what I call tinsel, but it’s not real tinsel… It looks like tinsel. If you look at the tree, you’ll notice, of course, like most trees, everything’s kind of ball-shaped. They’re big, they’re round. Even if they’re figurines, but if you look at the tree it doesn’t look that way and that’s because there are hundreds and hundreds of drop ornaments. Lots of icicles, but there are candy canes and other things that are vertical.”

Adding the chains breaks up the round look as they drape around the tree. “One year long ago, I forgot to put the chains on because I would do this at midnight and then go to work the next day at five o’clock. So I forgot to put the chains on. I looked at the tree the next day. Fortunately, I didn’t have the icicles on, and I said, ‘Can I do without the chains this year?’ Because all the other ornaments are on, and the chains are deep inside the tree. They’re not out on the edges. They go on first. I looked at the tree and I said, ‘Nope, gotta get those chains in there.’ and sure enough I weaved them in. I didn’t put as many on that year, but I got that swooping look, and that’s very important to the look of the tree.

“The tree has 1400 installed multicolored lights. That tree would not be pretty with white lights. It needs that color, and they are all incandescent… And then it has 230 or 240 of the night light size… And it’s also the same socket as the bubble lights, so there’s about 24 or 30 bubble lights. And then the rest of the tree has these lights that are the ones buried in the center of the tree and come out. That’s what makes the tree glow. It’s the big lights. They’re inside and then they come out on the branches because you gotta make all that glass glow, so the whole tree glows.”

While the large tree is definitely the attention grabber, the house showcases other noteworthy decorations, including a decorated tree in every room. Some may be miniature size, but “Out in the family room is another tree, and that’s a tree. I mean, it’s six feet tall, and it’s covered with fishing [objects], which include the ornaments and antique lures, real lures that hang on the tree. I warn people, those are real hooks; be careful.”

The mantle has the manager scene. “That was my mother’s. I have added to it. My mother started it; my father built the building… She was very enamored with the Mexican pottery figures that you can’t get anymore, but those are up there, too. It’s just a mismatch. There’s no set, and so there’re different styles, different vintages, different materials.”

Along with Christmas snow globes, “There’re old horns and things that were from my childhood. They are plastic, but you can blow into them... I have several places where there are Christmas toys, and the kids are allowed to play with them. Most of them are vintage… I mean, they’re pretty sturdy. The push toys, where the Christmas tree opens up, the rubber bands break, but you just replace it.”

With such elaborate decorating and a special tree, a neighbor suggested she have a party to show it off. Thus began the annual after-Christmas party since that is a lull time, but the house is still decorated. The 200 invitations to Optimists, Garden Club, and everyone on the block state that guests should bring nothing. Alley has her own way of doing it with her own recipes. “I have planned the whole evening. It’s endless food … It has to be finger food.” No silverware is needed, and savory triumphs over sweet.

The holiday spirit is apparent yearround with Alley. “Oh, my second biggest holiday is Halloween. I collect pumpkins. I hate cute anything. I don’t care if it’s a fairy or a pumpkin. I own nothing cute, including the fairies. My third is Easter and then Fourth of July and Thanksgiving.” When asked if she decorated to the extent she does for Christmas, she replied, “Halloween and Easter are pretty close as far as inside goes.”

Alley’s husband, Jim, supports her holiday spirit, but then she says he has no choice. Her three children decorate but differently. For Alley, “You know it’s all tradition. Everything has a story, and everything is a tradition in this house.” The extensive decorating may take days, but the joy it provides Alley is apparent. When guests see it, the joy permeates them. All of the effort involved is worth it to her. ◆