Debbie Midgley’s heart beats red, white and green before and after December each year. “Probably at least 20 years ago, I started earnestly decorating inside my home for Christmas beginning in November. I’m a Hallmark girl, loving to watch Christmas in July,” she quips. “In fact, I leave trees up in my bedroom year-round. I enjoy using the trees as dim lighting at night. These decorations are a constant source of comfort.”
Just one look at Debbie’s crisp holiday embellishments reveals a keen fondness of polar bears, five gingerbread houses, jewel-green accents and deep-cherry crimson baubles. While polar bears may not be the most traditional ‘Christmas animal,’ except at Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta, they’re strongly associated with winter snow and often appear on Christmas cards. Additionally, polar bears are respected by Inuit hunters as the most intelligent animal in the Arctic, and as a symbol of resilience, patience and determination—all wonderful attributes to emulate for the holidays.
This Chesterfield resident says her concerted decorating largely began with hosting two different book clubs comprised of fellow subdivision women. “It started with inviting the two book clubs to come together at the end of the year for a gift exchange, sometimes attending in Christmas pajamas or in ugly sweaters, and for other seasonal observations, such as coming in costumes for Halloween. We first had 12 to 15 women. Now, we’ve grown to 40 to 50,” Debbie shares.
Along with a holiday meal for the book club members, Debbie says she provides attendees with a take-away gift, often a candle in velvet or ornament-adorned boxes. She strategically uses these gifts as centerpieces or other decorations, then encourages guests, as a surprise, to select one at the evening’s end.
She says her décor inspirations come from magazines and ideas she sees on TV, as well as spotting specific holiday items from local stores, such as Mary Tuttle's in Chesterfield, Three French Hens in Wildwood, Marketplace At The Abbey in Manchester and The Gifted Gardener in Brentwood.
“Each year, I build on [ceramics and home decor retailer] MacKenzie-Childs Christmas collections when they have an online barn sale during July, and add a few new pieces,” Debbie explains.
As a Coldwell Banker Realty-Gundaker real estate agent, Debbie says she can’t help but suggest decorating ideas to clients with homes on the market during the holiday season.
Personally, she has a special memory tree, featuring people who’ve passed on, to honor and remember them during the holiday season. Referenced as her ‘Cardinals tree,’ it embodies the concept that many people believe seeing a red Northern Cardinal bird is a sign a deceased loved one is nearby or visiting them in spirit.
When Debbie became a widow during 2020, she added her husband’s photo to the memory tree. “Then we lost two members of the book club, and some other friends, so I added their photos to the tree, too,” she says.
She recalls she used to take pictures of her Christmas decorations so she could re-erect them in similar fashion. “I navigated to a different solution, though, after moving in 2022 across the street from my home of 30 years into a smaller home with a different floor plan. Where I put things before obviously changed, such as the polar bears used to be on a two-story landing and they now are in my kitchen/breakfast area. And I began to leave decorations up, bringing trees in and out of my bedroom instead of having to disassemble them. I now decorate the first floor and lower level of my home,” she says.
During the relocation, she says she placed sheets over her trees and had the movers carry them fully assembled. “The joke now is that due to a future progressive dinner in the subdivision, I’ll probably leave my Christmas decorations up until the end of February,” she says.
Where to store so many themed decorations also has been tackled by Debbie, who erected metal shelves in the unfinished portion of her home, converting from previously storing in boxes. She says she stacked the shelves back-to-back, surrounding them with a cover that unzips from the sides, front or back. “Everyone calls the storage ‘my shop,’ and some others who’ve seen it are now building the same type of system at their houses. It’s a great way to have each holiday organized, with all the Easter, Fourth of July and Thanksgiving items having their own sections,” Debbie states.
How long does it take Debbie to get all these Christmas decorations out to admire? “At least a period of over two weeks, then I tend to rearrange over time,” she says. “Sometimes my son and two grandsons help. They tell me it looks like Christmas exploded in my home!”
