Decked out
MIDDLESEX TWP — Ann Starr knows she goes overboard in decorating her home for the holidays, but she only does it for the 100-plus people who visit each year.
"I know I'm crazy, but it's a good crazy," Starr said on Monday of her home in the Nursery Park housing plan off Route 8.
Since 2003, Starr has decked out the home she shares with her husband, Bob, with thousands of decorations revolving around a certain theme. This year, Starr spent about $3,000 to transform eight rooms of her house into the "North Pole in the North Hills."
Starr's transformation begins at the lamppost light outside the home, which is camouflaged as a candy cane representing the actual pole. Guests entering the foyer are greeted by polar bear ornaments. The library is festooned with reindeer, the living room with 10 live polar-decorated trees, seven of which Bob Starr cut from the couple's yard. The kitchen serves as the land of misfit toys, the breakfast room with scores of handmade snowmen, the dining room with snowflakes.Starr's past themes have included an icicle forest, a spiraling Christmas, The Nightmare before Christmas and a superhero Christmas. This year, Starr purchased nine yards of green velvet and the same amount of red satin to make Santa's bed and five yards of fabric to craft his toybag.While she has 35 bins of Christmas decorations in her crawlspace, many of her decorations are slightly altered and reused in the annual displays.
Starr plans on welcoming at least 100 friends and family members into her home this year, and each will receive an unnamed favor from a costumed Starr.Starr has already begun preparations for next year,'s elaborate theme, "A Walt Disney Christmas."Despite her efforts, Starr said her husband would be happy with less decor."Bob wants the traditional Christmas tree with a wreath on the door," said Starr."It would kill me."
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