Dec. 24 is one of Sharon Frank’s favorite days of the year. And this year, the housing and asset specialist for KOOTASCA is looking forward to the day even more because for the first time in 30 years, she will be celebrating Christmas Eve with all five of her siblings.
“This is the first time we’ve all been together on Christmas Eve since my dad died 30 years ago,” she said. “I am so excited to see everybody together and just reminisce.”
Frank has been preparing for the holiday season since earlier this fall. She admitted that if she hasn’t started decorating for the holiday season by Halloween, she feels behind.
“If I don’t have a tree up by Halloween, I feel like I’m behind schedule,” she said with a laugh. “For how much I decorate, I do have to have a few months.”
For any visitors who enter the Frank household, it wouldn’t take long to understand Frank’s love for Christmas. Everything is festively decorated right down to red ribbon wrapped around white beams in the basement to resemble candy canes. The entire house emits the spirit of the season.
“Every year I just get more and more excited for Christmas,” Frank said. “I think it is that joy of giving and making memories for others. Making memories is so important for families.”
Christmas Eve festivities
There will be no shortage of company in the Frank home Christmas Eve as the couple is expecting about 60 friends and family members to gather for a potluck-style celebration.
“Everybody brings something, I just kind of orchestrate it,” Frank said.
Following the meal, Frank said Christmas photos are always taken and added to an album full of Dec. 24 memories. A special guest also makes a jolly appearance after dinner.
“We have a standing appointment with Santa Claus,” Frank said. “He comes every year and is fabulous.”
She laughed as she offered a quick memory of her granddaughter, Madison. “When Madison was younger, her dad played the role of Santa. One year she noticed that when Santa comes, she couldn’t find her father. The next year, we got a new Santa — the same one we’ve had since — and she said to me, ‘I guess my dad isn’t Santa.’”
Frank added that the group also participates in an annual white elephant gift exchange.
The term white elephant refers to a gift whose maintenance costs exceed its usefulness. As the legend of the popular gift exchange goes, everyone who attends the party brings a gift they find in their home, wraps it up, and exchanges it.
“People roll dice and if they roll a double, they get a gift,” Frank laughed as she explained the game. “When all the gifts are gone, we start a timer and everybody opens their gifts and then the timer starts again. Nobody keeps their gifts until about half an hour later.”
She added that everyone seems to enjoy themselves during the game and everybody ends up leaving the party with three or four items.
Unique decorations
Every year, Frank likes to find a different way to deck the halls. This year, while cleaning out the garage, Frank and her husband, Dennis, came across a shelf full of old deer antlers. After some Internet research on how to put them on display, Frank decided to use the antlers to decorate a Christmas tree.
“The trees I saw online were ugly,” she said. “I knew I could do better.”
Frank said she is satisfied with the finished product and is proud to point out that every horn on the tree comes from a deer shot by Dennis and the couple’s two sons, Tom and Terry.
With a little fake snow, and a touch of creativity, the antler tree display is what visitors to Frank’s home are calling “something to see.”
“I have people calling all the time to come see the tree,” Frank said.
Frank’s husband laughs as he explains that decorating with antlers is out of his wife’s element.
“She normally wouldn’t let my deer antlers come near the house,” Dennis Frank said.
“It’s true, that kind of stuff usually goes to the cabin,” Sharon Frank added.
Sharon Frank continued that the tree is also a first themed-tree she’s ever done and is unsure if she’ll bring it back into the home next year.
“I don’t know if I’ll do this kind of tree again,” she said. “But I may try to do a themed-tree every year now.”
Frank also has another Christmas tree garnished with an assortment of old toys and decorations. Everything from antique Santas and old-fashioned bubble lights sit on the boughs of the tree.
“I just like to do something a little different every year because I get so many ideas from people who come here,” Frank said. “I just love when people love it like I do.”
Not done until the party is over
For the past week, Frank has been home preparing for the Christmas Eve gathering that she said is “never over until the party ends.”
“We’ve been hosting Christmas Eve for 30 years and if you like it, it works out,” Frank said.
Looking back, Frank said the best thing about the festive evening is when her niece told her it was tradition to visit the Franks home on Christmas Eve.
“I never thought of it as (tradition) until she said that,” Frank said. “The idea that I’m creating a tradition for my family meant more to me than anything.”
