Deck the Halls: The philosophy of holiday decorations
Christmas is the spirit of giving, a time of great joy, getting together with family and friends and celebrating the birth of Christ.
Before the blessed day arrives, many Beach residents enjoy decorating their homes with brightness, festive designs and holiday dcor, involving lights, trees, ornaments, stockings, wreaths, garlands and other entertaining essentials.
Outdoor decorations show off a particular style and add to the celebration.
That individual style preference leads to a certain philosophy on how one’s outdoor arrangement of decorations should look to those who walk, drive or bike by.
Here is a look on two different methods to compare and/or contrast during your holiday season.
Mike Dagnese is an electrician who likes lights, lights and more lights. This year, he has logged in 215 total hours at his 3046 Shell Mound Blvd. address. That number includes 90 hours on his house and 125 hours building the 13-foot snowman since August. More than 33,000 lights are attached to his home, man-made snowman and palm tree all together.
Donna and Jeff Smith live at 7837 Estero Boulevard and their yard is an attraction of sorts for the many onlookers. They have transformed their usual yard dcor into a tropical Christmas-themed wonderland.
You can call it work versus creativity or brightness versus animated festiveness. Each style has its own individual preference.
Dagnese’s philosophy appears to be the brighter the better.
“I put up 10,000 lights on the snowman, 15,000 on the tree and more than 8,000 on the house,” he said. “My electricity bill goes up easily a couple of hundred dollars in December.”
In fact, the indication for turning off the lights falls on the follow-up bill.
“Everybody wants to know when I turn my lights off. That’s easy. When I get the electric bill in January,” said Dagnese.
Mike’s family has had to endure the annual timely process of having the man of the house spending his spare time on decorations. It has happened since 1999. The makeup has gotten progressively bigger and bigger each year. There is no repetitive pattern.
“I don’t have any idea when I start doing this each year,” Mike said. “I knew I was going to do the snowman, then the house, then I’ll put things there and over there. Until I actually start doing this, I don’t have a scheme.”
This year, besides building the gigantic snowman and 125-foot rope light top hat, Dagnese has four electronic moving reindeer and two baby reindeer, a donated old-fashion Santa Claus figurine on sleigh, five inflatable dolls, a rope-light assembly of another Santa, sleigh and nine reindeer (all staked down due to December winds) in front a 15,000-light palm tree made with green bulbs only as well as balls and star 14 feet up in yet another tree. Of course, there are regular lights around the perimeter of each street-facing window and doorframe and commercial-grade icicles hanging from the gutter.
Previous photos from years’ past are telling tales for differences that may occur in the future. He noticed he hadn’t “wrapped up” the garage doors in five years, so he decided to spend 11 hours on that project with additional help from his daughter, Sarah (five hours).
“I’ll pick pieces from this one and pieces from that one and rearrange them to make something different every year. You just pick and mix and match,” he said. “I also knew I had all of these green lights that I created a Christmas tree in the past, so I decided to put all of those lights on the palm tree.”
The Smiths’ philosophy is spelled out on a sign in their yard, “A Very Beachy Christmas.”
Donna’s mother came up with the idea of the yard display. Jeff and she did the legwork to put it all together.
“Mom usually sits back and tells me what color and where things should go where,” Donna said. “My mom is very creative. I wish I had her imagination.”
Imagination in the Smith yard is in the form of four differently decorated trees, flamingos, rabbits, frogs and life-size doll mannequins that are all decked out in holiday attire. There is an underwater tree (ornaments from the sea); noodle tree (Donna’s mom’s first thought for decorations and, thus, the centerpiece); flip-flop tree (Jim’s tree) and flamingo tree (with pink flamingos as ornaments).
“The noodle tree is the main event and was a very time-consuming project, because we had to cut all the noodles and shove branches into all of the little holes. We also had to put an angle on them and make sure there was some kind of formation to it,” said Donna.
The yard dcor also includes Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus in the beach wading pool with snorkels by their side, a snowman in the hammock holding onto a sand bucket and shovel, assorted animal creatures with home-made Santa hats (done with Velcro, fabric glue and cotton balls) on top of their heads and residual Halloween decorations (which includes a hat-wearing ceramic cat on a motion detector to alarm and entertain those who walk by on the nearby sidewalk) that have been transformed into the current holiday theme. Poinsettias placed in buckets were added this year.
“The Halloween decorations remain, but with Santa hats on, of course,” said Donna. “We receive a lot of picture takers, usually people who drive by, stop across the street and take a photo. Some of them break so suddenly that they are close to getting in an accident.”
The Dagnese display is not on Estero Island’s main road, but many residents and visitors know his property’s whereabouts easily and are not short on their views and comments.
“I’ve heard that ‘this is the best year ever’ by everybody walking by,” Mike said. “Twenty people at a time walk over here from Red Coconut campground with drinks in their hands, and they seem to keep coming back every night. People that I know bring their friends by every time out with somebody different. Then those friends bring their friends over to show them.”
People who have yet to witness such a display offer more of an eye-popping, jaw-dropping gesture.
“I hear ‘this is crazy’ or ‘unbelievable’ or ‘this is like up north’ on a nightly basis,” Mike said. “There is also a lady and a child who come over every night. The kid gets out of the stroller, high fives Santa Claus, then talks to all the reindeer.”
The Edison Holiday Home of Fort Myers Beach is never a dull place to drop by. There is no charge at this site, though.
“I wouldn’t mind collecting donations and give them to the Beach Little League,” said Mike, a Worcester, Mass. native and 28-year Beach resident.
This is the Smith couple’s fourth year at this address on the Beach and their display has expanded each year as well. Donna and Jeff moved here from Bonita Springs. Donna is originally from Philadelphia and Jeff is from Washington, DC.
“We know our display is different then the normal Christmas decorations,” said Donna. “We rely on the Beach theme, utilize the beach and make it a Beachy Christmas. I have flamingos in the yard all year round, so why not bring Christmas to the yard.”
The couple has thought about donating their noodle tree to a childcare center.
“That has always been in the back of our mind. Last year, we had some visitors that wanted to take the tree over to the beachfront and do a family portrait,” said Donna.
When asked if people do stop by to take photos in front of their holiday dcor, the answer was all-day and everyday.
“We have people 24-7 pulling over and taking photos,” said Jeff. And, eerily on cue, a car stops across the street to take a photo from the driver’s side.
“Everything has to do with the Beach because we live on the beach,” Donna added. “We are expressing to the Northerners that come down here how Florida celebrates Christmas.”
Like many other Beach residents, the couple does have holiday lights on their house, on most of the front perimeter of the yard and a spotlight that illuminates the noodle tree.
“We are not known for the lights,” said Donna. “We know we couldn’t compete that way. But, everything is lit up at night. It looks pretty and colorful during the day.
While Donna is in the yard either moving things around or adding a few final touches, she hears many comments from those who stroll by. Words such as ‘how great,’ ‘I love it,’ ‘I wish we could this up north,’ ‘different,’ ‘colorful,’ ‘fun,’ ‘great imagination’ are common.
“We get a lot of smiles. The regulars that walk by say, ‘Thank you’,” she said. “They say that they love our yard and look forward to it every season whether it be Christmas, Halloween or any normal day of the year. We get a kick out of it when we sit on the porch with our coffee in the morning and here the comments. We always get giggles from the cat.”
While any form of decorations takes time to plan and display, the end results are the most rewarding.
“That’s what they are there for. It’s for everybody else to enjoy it,” said Mike.