Do you decorate for Christmas?

We do dress up the inn a bit for the holiday season. It usually starts with the purchase of a nine-foot tree for the living room. Seely does lights, I string popcorn and we both share ornament hanging duty.

We hang wreaths on the front door and all the doors to the guest rooms. Penguin sentries stand guard on either side of the front steps to keep grinches away. Frosty the Snowman and his main squeeze, Icilla, point the way to the side porch steps, so guests know how to find the entrance from the parking lot.

The most time-consuming and coldest duty is putting the outside lights up. It usually takes me one entire afternoon to find the boxes in the basement, untangle the strings and test them to weed out the duds.

In past years we have done some pretty elaborate light shows involving shrubbery, the penguins and all the porch support posts. With utility costs rising and power consumption politically incorrect, (and the fact that the new bushes aren't big enough yet) we took a more minimalist approach this year. Six strings only (two along the roof line, four along the porch rails and handrails by the steps. I set a personal record by getting the whole thing done in two hours, 18 minutes.

The decorations stay up until the first day without guests in the New Year. It takes pretty much an entire day to take everything down, pack it up and stow it away for next year.

Posted by Innkeeper David