B.C. couple keeps elaborate Christmas decorations up almost half the year

Helen Bennett and Jack Gamble are sitting on the front steps of a house that's decorated with tinsel, candy canes, and colourful lights. If you glance at their windows, it seems to be Christmasy inside too.

To appreciate why it’s still looking so merry in March, we need to go back to when the couple say they first met one May.

“We had just an electric kind of connection,” Jack recalls.

“It was beautiful,” Helen smiles. “It was magical.”

It was at a party celebrating Helen’s sister.

“(Our connection) was so great, I went and pulled her sister aside and said, ‘Who am I talking to?’” Jack recalls. “And she’s like, ‘Oh, that’s my sister.'”

Jack says he was blown-away, because he had dated Helen’s sister for a few years, but he had only met Helen a couple of times.

“When I saw her these 15 years later,” Jack says. “I had no idea who she was.”

“I wouldn’t have recognized him,” Helen says. “He surprised me in the way he looked.”

They ended up spending the whole party in such a deep conversation that they didn’t talk to anyone else.

“We have never not talked a day in our lives since then,” Jack laughs. “We’ve been together the whole time.”

“He’s the love of my life,” Helen smiles.

One of the ways Helen and Jack have kept their love thriving during their 13 years of marriage is by planning for Christmas in mid-October.

“When the two of us blended our families (and our Christmas decorations), it just became, 'How much can we do?'” Jack says.

And by golly, on Nov. 1, their home begins feeling jolly. Along with their five Christmas trees, every surface features a bounty of decorations.

And before they even get to December, there’s no doubt its the “hap-happiest season of all.”

“Not every husband and wife are going to agree that one Santa’s good, but maybe 50 would be better,” Helen laughs. “And we’re like, ‘Ok! Maybe 100 next year!’”

Appreciating their vast collection of Clauses, one can’t help but be impressed with how Helen and Jack put the “ho-ho-ho” in home.

After they celebrate Christmas Day and the start of the New Year, they are grateful for the way the decorations illuminated the darkest days of winter, which is why the keep the cheer going for almost six months.

“It makes us feel good,” Jack says.

“It brings joy while it’s here,” Helen smiles.

When the longer, lighter days are eventually here — at the end of March — all the decorations will finally be taken down.

And although their Christmas home will then seem like a dream, Helen and Jack’s love light will still gleam.

“It’s the little things like this that build the love of your life,” Helen smiles. “So if you have something that’s great that you love, do it. And have fun with it!”