VICTORIA -- There was a time when this was nowhere near the happiest time of the year for Mary.
“As a single parent, I always felt guilty,” Mary says. “[I felt] ‘Oh, I can’t buy the latest present.’”
Although she could be proud of how hard she worked to keep her son housed, fed, and clothed the rest of the year, it was different at Christmas.
“There was that feeling of being a failure as a parent,” Mary says.
Yet her adult son couldn’t disagree more. “I respect how strong and tough and stubborn she is,” Jonathan says.
He respects how she started fostering him at five days old, eventually adopting him, and supporting him through the challenges of growing up with autism.
She switched her focus at Christmas from what she couldn’t do for him, to what she could.
“I see it as almost chivalrous or honourable,” Jonathan says.
Mary started buying a couple decorations from the elementary school fundraiser and tried to make their home look merry.
“And it just sort of evolved,” she laughs, looking around the room. “I don’t do things on a small scale, as you can see!”
It seems that if you keep adding a few new decorations every year for decades, and start expressing a little Christmas creativity, you just might find that your shelves become so full of festivity. Your ceilings turn seasonal too.
Above the displays of countless decorations, Mary has hung hundreds of colourful ball ornaments from the ceiling and arranged them in a dynamic circular pattern.
“Normally people go crazy when they see 100 or 200 decorations,” Jonathan says. “But 9,000!”
Normally that’s how many Christmas decorations fill their home from floor to ceiling, covering the walls in between. Normally they invite people over to indulge in the seasonal spectacle. Normally they offer the experience as a gift.
“They keep looking around [saying] ‘Wow!’” Jonathan says. “It’s like their mind’s been blown that this even exists.”
But this year isn’t normal — nobody would be visiting — so Mary started putting out just a few decorations, counting what she was grateful for along the way.
“Yes, we do have a roof over our head. Yes, we do have food,” she recalls. “And as I started doing it, it was just to see how he lit up.”
Grownup Jonathan lit up like he used to as a kid.
“If my crazy decorations bring a smile to one person’s face then it’s made my Christmas,” Mary says.
It’s also made her a seasonal success, for the priceless gift its offered Jonathan.
“The idea that even in the darkest times, we can still have a light,” he says. “A flicker of hope.”
