THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512190448
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STAFF WRITER VICKI L. FRIEDMAN
LENGTH: Long : 221 lines
CHARLES DICKENS would feel right at home in Jeff and Pam Smith's Birdneck Point house. Their Victorian holiday decor is so elegant, so ornate - it's breathtaking.
Accentuating the 11-foot ceilings is carefully draped garland, adorned with toys, candy canes, red balls, poinsettias, gold beads and bows. A fabulous artificial tree, in the 8-foot range, sits next to the sofa, which overlooks Linkhorn Bay.
``I grew up with colored lights; Pam grew up with white lights,'' says Jeff, an emergency room doctor in several Hampton Roads hospitals. ``So we have a battle going back and forth.''
The colored lights reflect nicely off the gold lame, leftover from Halloween costumes. The Smiths use it as you would tinsel or ribbon. Pam says they have thousands of ornaments, and most of the ones on this tree are from travel.
``Most every place you go has a Christmas shop,'' Jeff says.
Ceramic Santas occupy the end tables and other nooks, and bold papier-mache reindeer with green velvet bows around their necks stand watch in front of the fireplace. On the mantel evergreens and candles create a warm glow.
Go round the house's pillars - also adorned with garland, white lights and gold bows - and you'll be staring into two of the most creative bathrooms you'll find. One keeps the Victorian theme with its old Santas and a pink cushiony wall hanging reading ``Noel.'' The other strays from the elegant in favor of a funky Key West look.
``This room is completely different from the rest of the house,'' Pam says.
``We have no idea what happened in here,'' Jeff adds, with a laugh.
The fixtures are lime green and the walls sponge-painted yellow. For the holidays, the Smiths have added a tiny white tree with pink and teal lights and bright purple lame.
Next door is Pam's work room where she makes most of the flower arrangements and bows. ``It's a mess,'' she confesses. ``We have a huge wreath (4 feet) in there and nowhere to hang it.''
The Smiths' bedroom resonates Victorian. The lace curtains are swept into swags, and two stockings hang on a second fireplace. The columned wooden bed is in the center of the room, and next to it is a 7-foot tree, largely decorated in pink and white. Most of the ornaments are angels.
``I'm a real angel freak,'' Pam says. ``This was my tree before we got married. I've had it forever.''
Also on the tree are brilliant pink silk flowers, saved from Jeff and Pam's wedding.
The master bathroom is done in hunter green, and evergreen garland frames the mirror. ``We're in overload with the vanilla scent,'' Jeff admits, referring to the 30 or so burning votive candles.
Downstairs, another spare bedroom is home to the Christmas cards Jeff has saved through the years. He's tacked them on the wall at an angle so each card's design blends in with the next. A dozen stuffed animals wearing Santa hats and a reindeer wearing a dress smile from the bed.
Off of the bedroom is a sizable rec room where Santa is at play, making a mess blowing bubbles. In another corner, Santa is going up and down a ladder with lights. The tree reflects the room's country theme, illuminated by bubble and sunflower lights and covered with cows.
The Smiths have remodeled the house since they bought it three years ago, and they've come a long way as decorators, borrowing many ideas from Coleman's Nursery in Portsmouth.
Their first Christmas in the house wasn't quite so festive. ``We had Christmas right here,'' Pam says, referring to a spot on the living room rug. ``We had a flag draped over the speaker, a 1-foot tree ornament and a poinsettia.''
Sometimes they leave their decorations up until Super Bowl Sunday as neither is eager to take them down to stuff back in the 200 or so boxes. Still, Jeff is already brimming with ideas for next year. He'd like a full-sized Santa for inside and a real sleigh to occupy the circle in front of their house.
``Christmas is Christmas,'' he says, trying to explain his passion for the holiday. ``It's just like a magical time.''
THE TWO BEARS in Violet Hankins' foyer are dressed for Christmas and so is she. The bears, donned as Santa and Mrs. Claus, are seated on a tiny table eating breakfast off even tinier plates - Christmas china, of course. Next to them is their own buffet - Hankins made it by adding legs to a jewelry box - topped with a small holiday floral arrangement. They have their own tree with mini decorations, too
``I shouldn't do this, but Big Lots has a little miniature village, and they're going to have their own village under the tree,'' says Hankins, looking festive in a red vest, long-sleeved shirt with poinsettias on the collar and black velvet pumps imprinted with holiday designs.
Hankins' creative hand is evident throughout her stately, 84-year-old home in downtown Suffolk.
``Most everything I do, I don't want it to be like everyone else,'' she says. ``I want it to be a little different.''
It's a while until Christmas, but Santa has already come to Hankins' home. Old Santa prints hang in every available space - a particularly striking one features an old Santa fan with a red velvet mat and green frame. Her collection of Clothtique Santas is scattered everywhere.
The living room and parlor are full of printed holiday pillows, throws and tapestries. A full-sized tree with white lights and mostly angel ornaments looks out onto the quiet street.
Look closely at the gold nuggets scattered in her foyer and you'll see that they're angel confetti. ``Closer to Christmas I sprinkle it on everything,'' Hankins says.
Atop her dainty white marble mantel is snow and what looks like a reindeer-and-sleigh ensemble. But Hankins bought them separately, first finding the jeweled reindeer, then drilling holes in their undersides and placing them on dowels. The sleigh came from a recent trip to Cape May, N.J. Hankins added her own finishing touch to the arrangement, streamers of gold stars.
She fills the fireplace with evergreens and tall candles. ``I put the candles in and just light those,'' Hankins explains. ``It's an old house, and I don't trust the chimney.''
Children's Christmas books are on most every end table and a holiday tic-tac-toe with pieces shaped like trees and Santas is on one coffee table. A mistletoe ball with silk flowers and evergreen divides the parlor from the dining room, where there is another tree, tall and skinny, with older glass ornaments. Hankins made the table centerpiece - an evergreen arrangement with green candles and hand-blown glass ornaments.
Later the foyer leading to the kitchen will be lined with cookie tins, but for now there's a homemade Swedish cookie tree in place.
``It's supposed to go by the front door with homemade cookies on it,'' she says. ``As a Swedish tradition, when guests came, they left with a cookie.'' Instead of real cookies, Hankins stained tiny wooden ornaments to look like cookies.
For Christmas china, Hankins has a mix-and-match set. ``There's so many patterns that I liked that I just buy one of each and let everyone have a different one.''
In the kitchen is another tree, one that looks more like a spiral bough. On it are cookie cutters and decades-old ornaments.
``Some of these, like these corn-husk dolls, which were 5 or 10 cents from the Pottery, were some of the first me and my husband ever owned,'' she says. ``I just don't want to trash them.''
Hankins enjoys Christmas so much she doesn't even mind packing her decorations away. ``I take a lot of time putting them away,'' she says. ``I like to look at each one and wrap it up, because I won't see it again until next year.''
CHRISTMAS pageantry at the Hudson household begins shortly after 6 every morning. That's when one Santa bellows a jolly ``ho, ho, ho'' as another rocks to ``Jingle Bells.'' Mr. and Mrs. Claus make toys in the North Pole snow as yet one more bearded guy in a fancy red suit snores loudly.
``I wouldn't know how to live any other way,'' gushes Patricia Hudson of the Christmas wonderland she creates annually in her cozy Portsmouth home. ``This holiday is part of me, part of my personality inside.''
Hudson, who begins decorating Thanksgiving night, is an admitted Christmas fanatic. Even the license plate on her green Grand Am reads ``LveDec25.'' And don't think the color green was chosen by accident.
During the holidays, she hops out of bed on the strike of 6 and spends the next 15 minutes flipping on lights to illuminate all the decorations that fill nearly every inch of her home. Every room has its own theme - and its own tree.
Her bedroom, for starters, reflects the memories of her late husband, Jerry. Most everything in it was made by Jerry, who took up cross-stitching to relieve high blood pressure. Patricia hangs each of the homemade ornaments on a tree next to her bed.
``This was one of his talents that I definitely could not do,'' says Hudson, gazing at her favorite piece - a circular ornament with a tiny town imprinted with the words ``Silent Night.'' ``This is the last thing he made,'' she says, lifting a poinsettia doily underneath a lamp. ``This is just my memorabilia room, things that I have over the years shared with my husband.''
On her way to the living room, Hudson sets off another ``ho, ho, ho'' - one of the dozens of motion ornaments that chatter throughout the house. This one sits in the dining room, which encourages everybody to have a Coca-Cola Christmas. A Coke village is spread over five shelves, interspersed with vintage Coke bottles and tins. A Coca-Cola tree with Coke ornaments brightens a corner. The Coke bears, Santa hats and all, sit on a nearby table that has red and green chairs. Hudson painted the chairs green, and her daughter, Melissa, sewed the red fabric seat covers.
``My husband taught her, and she took it over,'' Hudson says. ``They're changed according to each holiday - Christmas, Easter. I decorate for everything but tax day.''
In the kitchen, carols play on the jukebox radio, and tiny gingerbread men peek out through a homemade wreath. Looking back at them are gingerbread magnets lined up on the 'fridge. The room even smells like ginger, thanks to scented candles, but the cookies on the counter aren't real.
Guests arrive unannounced, brought over by some friends to see the spectacle. They pass by Hudson's collection of mangers - including one from Bethlehem - and her Christmas tree china, making their way from the traditional living room into the den.
The den is indeed ``the magic room,'' as Hudson calls it. Christmas toys are everywhere. A brilliant tree, the largest in the house, and the brightest, with 700 lights, is the centerpiece. Every ornament is dated so Hudson can remember its origin. Toys, stuffed and otherwise, are everywhere, and snowflakes hang from the ceiling. On the coffee table is the train set Hudson's brother played with as a child.
``I sit in my den and get lost in the lights and music,'' sighs Hudson, who watches holiday movies year-round and keeps her decor up through Jan. 8 to mark the 12 days of Christmas. ``I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't decorate.'' Pointing to her kids, she says, ``They'll have to decorate my hospital room when I'm 85 and walking with a cane.''
Even that, adds her 16-year-old son, Alan, will be wrapped up like a candy cane. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
Santa and Mrs. Claus have their own tree, Christmas china and
decorations in the Hankins' home.
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
Patricia Hudson's den has a large tree with 700 lights, toys in
every corner and suspended snowflakes.
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
The living room of the Smith's Virginia Beach home glows with gold
bows and beads and lots of green garlands and colorfull tree
lights.
Photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
Christmas bears sit atop the mantel in Patricia Hudson's den, which
she calls ``the magic room.''
KEYWORDS: CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS by CNB