Andersons deck the halls — inside and out
When driving down Eleventh Street, Dick and Irene Anderson’s extensive set up of Christmas lights is a hard display to miss.
The International Falls natives have some sort of display for every calendar holiday, right down to St. Patrick’s Day. Christmas, however, is their favorite.
“We’ve been decorating something for 30 years,” Dick said. “Irene’s always decorated.”
Irene is the master mind behind the display of lights, snowmen and the Clauses, and Dick sets them up.
“She does all the planning, I do all the work,” Dick laughed.
“Putting up decorations is just fun,” Irene added. “People always mention how they like our decorations.”
The Andersons’ big picture window in their living room gives them a chance to see all their “fans” slowly driving by to admire their decorations.
“We often notice cars slowing down to look at our yard,” Irene laughed. “We’ve even had a few people come up to our door to comment on the lights.”
“What they can’t see is our backyard,” Dick added. “We have lights back there timed to music.”
The couple agreed that their decorating thumb is something they started together and is a tradition they look forward to with every season. Decorations are almost pouring out the front door as they take over the inside of the house, too.
The Anderson’s family members tend to congregate to their home for Christmas morning. They said they like to have an admirable display set up both outside and inside, especially for their three young grandchildren.
“The grandkids like to push the musical stuffed snowmen,” Dick said. “I think our granddaughter wore some of them out.”
Irene usually sets up a Christmas village on her entertainment center, unfortunately this year, she ran out of time and was unable to get it up, she said. She has 23 buildings, several figurines and a lot of trees to make up the display.
Aside from the village, Irene is a collector of many Christmas-type items. She enjoys a variety of the Hallmark ornament series, particularly fairies, cats, dogs, birds and snowmen.
“It is kind of an addiction,” Irene laughed. “Once I start on a series it is hard to stop.”
The Hallmark decorations hang on a unique Christmas tree, too. The Andersons have a base that rotates their tree.
“We love it and haven’t been able to find one since,” Irene said. “I turn the tree on at 5:30 a.m. and find myself staring at it off and on. I would love to have more room to set up more trees.”
She also enjoys miniature ornaments and has more than 300 in her collection. She has another tree to hang some on, and others hang on garland draped on an archway in her home.
The grand decorating operation is ready by Thanksgiving, Irene said. And, the decorations will stay up into the first week of the new year. She also likes to add to the display every year. This year, a large light-up snowman was added to the mix.
“We got the snowman in Virginia,” Dick said. “It was so big that it wouldn’t fit in our car, so we had to bring down the truck to haul this thing home.”
Irene claims the snowman was a must-have and she couldn’t pass it up.
The couple said they would like to visit Bentleyville, the light up extravaganza, in Duluth for inspiration.
“We’d like to go visit this weekend,” Dick said.
“I’ve heard it is really something,” Irene added.
All the Andersons’ decorations take up a lot of room. Luckily, their neighbors had a shed they weren’t using, so they store the big decorations in there.
Christmas and all of its glory seem to follow each Anderson wherever they go. Dick, who drives school bus, said each morning there are six girls who serenade the bus with Christmas carols.
“They sing the same ones every day,” Dick said, smiling.
Christmas cookies are another favorite tradition of Irene, who said she loves to bake cookies.
The decorations are up, the cookies are baked, the Christmas cards are out, Irene is just about ready for the fast-approaching holiday. Except for one vital detail.
“I haven’t done any Christmas shopping yet,” she admitted. “I have to get busy, but at least I love to wrap.”
Irene said she loves shiny wrapping paper and everyone on her shopping list will get at least one gift wrapped in foil. She said she enjoys it so much that she’s even often thought about letting people know she’ll wrap their gifts for them.
“I just love to decorate,” Irene concluded. “I’m happy to do it if it makes people happy.”
For photos, pick up today's edition of The Journal.
