Halloween vs. Christmas in West VA

Okay, not to beat a dead horse (too late for that?), but the people absolutely love, love, love Halloween around here and go to great lengths to celebrate. It's quite fun!

At the risk of being picked up by the police and charged with stalking, I took a photo today of a house I had taken photos of at Halloween.

Compare and contrast, shall we?

Here's the house, which we fondly refer to as the "witch-circle house," pulling out all the stops for Halloween.

Here's a close-up of the witches in a circle.

Ahhh, the Halloween splendor.



Now let's contrast this with Christmas. Ready?










BAM!

Yup. That's it. A wreath on the door.











From this-------

------to this. And one thing remains the same; it's still private property!

Holidays...the West Virginia Way!

So, I found some PURPLE lights at Goodwill today. I will tuck these babies away for my extra fancy Halloween decorating next year here in West Virginia.

Driving around today, I noticed that the porches are decorated with little Christmas trees. We just happen to have a little Christmas tree, and I just happened to find some white lights and ribbon and a Santa hat at Goodwill today, too. What are the odds?!?!

Here's our front porch with a little Christmas tree.

With some daylight.....

....and without.

Finished, With Time to Spare!

 WHEW!! Finished....in the nick of time!

After extensive research on decorating American Foursquare homes, I discovered that shelves (built-in or free-standing) flanking the fireplace are the common filler for those spaces. It is also common to have lamps on the shelves. So, we are compromising with our end tables and lamps under the windows. The main point seems to be that each side be identical/symmetrical, under the windows.

Find the Kitty!

Followup pictures on the way....to show the room transformation!

Can you find the kitty in these pictures?

Gettin' ready for Christmas!