The Dart: Natchez family bonds over decoration joy

Published 12:06 am Monday, December 23, 2013

Brittney Lohmiller / The Natchez Democrat — Abby Faust, 8, from left, Liam Jones, 4, and their cousin Liza Byrne, 6, add bows and ribbons to wrapped Christmas presents Saturday. The children spent the day helping Abby and Liam’s mother, Stephanie Jones, wrap gifts and finis Christmas baking.

Brittney Lohmiller / The Natchez Democrat — Abby Faust, 8, from left, Liam Jones, 4, and their cousin Liza Byrne, 6, add bows and ribbons to wrapped Christmas presents Saturday. The children spent the day helping Abby and Liam’s mother, Stephanie Jones, wrap gifts and finis Christmas baking.

NATCHEZ — It’s just not Christmastime at Stephanie Jones’ house unless her home has been transformed into a winter wonderland.

Jones said her love of Christmas decorating comes from her mother, Elizabeth Swalm, who always made sure her house was decorated for the holidays.

Brittney Lohmiller / The Natchez Democrat — Abby ties a ribbon a to wrapped Christmas present.

Brittney Lohmiller / The Natchez Democrat — Abby ties a ribbon a to wrapped Christmas present.

“It’s just a tradition,” Jones said. “We always walked into a very Christmas-feeling home when I was a kid.”

Email newsletter signup

When The Dart landed on Jones’ Walnut Street house Saturday, it found Jones and her children, Abby Faust, 8, Liam Jones, 4, and her niece Liza Byrne, 6, wrapping Christmas presents and decorating them with bows and ribbon under the Christmas tree. Jones and her children just moved into the house a couple of weeks ago, and Jones said she rushed to get it decorated for Christmas.

“It’s not Christmas unless the house is decorated,” she said.

The stockings are up, the tree is decorated, Jones’ Christmas snow globe collection, along with the family’s Christmas book collection, is out on bookshelves, amid several other holiday decorations.

But Jones said with the rush to move into the house, she didn’t have time to put up all the decorations.

“This is hardly anything compared to what I usually have up,” Jones said, scanning her eyes across the living room at the decorations.

Abby, who has also come to love decorating her house for Christmas, said only about half of the family’s decorations are up.

“If my mommy used all of our stuff, my house would look like a winter wonderland,” Abby said.

Jones said she hopes when her children are older, they also adopt the tradition of decking out their houses for the holidays.

“I think they will,” she said. “They’re already claiming decorations they want for themselves.”

Abby carefully scans her mother’s collection of more than 20 snow globes before she picks out one with Santa inside as her favorite.

“This is the one I want,” she said, smiling.