Published: December 16, 2008 09:30 pm      

Pinehurst woman shows love for Christmas

PINEHURST — With one look inside the home of Charlene Paulk you can easily determine what her favorite holiday is.

Paulk loves Christmas and most everything associated with the festive holiday, including lights and decorations. To celebrate the season, she has 62 lighted Christmas trees on display around her home and many more smaller, non-lighted trees.

“I’ve always loved colored Christmas lights, especially as a child,” Paulk said. “I would find the lights while my mom was at work, no matter what time of year, and just play with them. She was always replacing plenty of bulbs when Christmas came back around each year.”

Her love of the holiday season and lights evolved into a love of decorating trees. For more than 20 years, Paulk has decorated multiple trees, but one event changed her outlook for years to come.

“Fifteen years ago, a friend of mine, Janis Switzer, took me to visit one of her friend’s at Christmas,” Paulk continued. “She had a tree in every room of her home. I was sold on it right then, and haven’t looked back.”

Paulk’s Pinehurst home is beautifully decorated with trees from 18-inches to 9 feet tall, and each has its own theme.

The living room boasts a trees decorated in Barbie, Star Wars and a Western Santa theme, while the den features a Nascar tree, as well as Dallas Cowboys, Texas Longhorns and a University of Alabama tree, which is where Paulk lived as a child.

“My family members are big Alabama fans,” she said. “There are pictures of Bear Bryant all over in their homes. In fact, it is the first tree my daughter lets me put up each year.”

Other tree themes include Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Campbell’s Soup, Disney, Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, cookie cutter, fishing, Cajun, Star Trek, Mardi Gras, Little Mermaid and many more.

One of Paulk’s favorite trees is her traditional Christmas tree.

“It’s the only live Christmas tree in the house, and all of the decorations on it were made by the children when they were in school,” Paulk said with a smile. “It’s the most special tree.”

Although Paulk has decorated multiple trees for many years, this is the first time since 2004 she has done so.

Hurricane Rita caused extensive damage to her home in 2005 by dropping three trees on it, and, in 2006, she only put six trees on display while dealing with a family member’s wedding.

“Last year I put up seven trees and planned to do more, but I changed my mind,” Paulk added. “I was getting ready for my finals at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and thought it was more important to focus on that.”

Paulk stores all contents in 80 plastic storage boxes and in alphabetical order. She spends a week planning her tree layout and begins unboxing trees in September. She then spends most of October and November decorating.

“Everything was finished on December 6th, and I had a small open house for most of my neighbors on December 7th,” Paulk said. “The only tree I didn’t put up this year was my Flintstones tree. The tree needed to be replaced, but I couldn’t find one suited to fit the theme.”

Another favorite tree in Paulk’s house is the medical tree, complete with plastic syringes. It represents her family. Like Paulk, all five of her children — four daughters and one son — work in the medical field.

“I have some people tell me when they get here they really aren’t in the Christmas spirit,” she said. “But, like one of my friends said, you are when you leave.”



Reach this reporter at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com