Getting the right holiday look
The pumpkins are barely put away before the first manger scene comes out.
By Nov. 1, Millie Pinkerton has already started the five-week process that turns every room in the three-story home she shares with her husband, Dale, at 703 N. Main St. into a Christmas wonderland.
The decorations inside and out of the house — not to mention the four Christmas trees — and Millie Pinkerton's attention to detail — every room's decorations are put away in their original packaging and packed in boxes labeled for that room — have landed the Pinkerton home on the Butler Symphony's Home Tour twice.
“I started the first weekend in November,” said Millie Pinkerton. “It takes me five or six weeks. I do it room by room. Every room has its boxes labeled. Every room has two or three boxes.”
There are 14 rooms so that makes for a lot of boxes which are stowed away in the attic and the garage when it isn't the season.
She said, “It's Dale's job to bring the boxes in, him and whoever he can find to help him.”
“The living room has 15 boxes,” said the recently retired Dale Pinkerton, a former Butler County commissioner. That's because of all of the Nativity scenes, he said.
“It's basically mangers in this room,” said Millie Pinkerton. “When we were younger and traveled, we'd bring them back from Poland, the Ukraine, Italy, Germany, Scotland. I've got one from a friend that is from Africa.”
Dale Pinkerton might help in placing the Nativity scenes this year.
“This will be the first year I've helped her other than bring the boxes down because it is the first year I've been retired,” he said.
She noted he will be helping under her supervision.
“I do all the decorating. I have ADD. I like it the way I like it,” she said.
“My goal is always to have the house completely decorated by Dec. 1,” Millie Pinkerton said.
That includes the finished basement which carries a clown's Christmas theme.
The Yuletide extravaganza has to be back in its boxes and the boxes back in the garage and attic by the second week of February.
She said that's when she goes to work for an accountant during tax season.
She has been decorating her house since 1990 adding decorations and figurines along the way. But that buying has slowed to almost a stop recently, the Pinkertons said.
Millie Pinkerton said, “We are not doing as much. We are taking things that are not in use and making a pile of them for nieces, nephews and other relatives,” 55 strong, who will arrive at the Pinkertons the day after Christmas.“I'm going to offer them to keep them in the family,” Millie Pinkerton said of the decorations.She said she can see a day when there won't be as many decorations on display. Already, she noted, the second floor rooms aren't as decorated and Dale had given up trying to position Santa Ana, a reindeer, in a tree.But for right now, decorating is a pleasure.“I love it. It is something I like to do. To me, it's not a chore,” Millie Pinkerton said.“There's a story behind each decoration,” she said. “It's kind of like opening Christmas presents. It brings back memories.“Our main Christmas tree is one of the first artificial Christmas trees, but it still looks so real, we've never gotten rid of it. It sits on a rotating base,” said Millie Pinkerton.And, if she gets decorating at her house done early, she can always turn more time and attention to the Christmas trappings at First United Methodist Church, 200 E. North St., where she has been in charge of the holiday decorating committee for 10 years.
