Decorating

For The Season

By Kendra Bobowick

They decked the lampposts with winterberry strands, trailing sticky pine scent along the sidewalks in Sandy Hook Tuesday afternoon.

Stepping past knots of evergreen bows at his feet, Juan Marrero chose a strand and placed it in a shrub propped in front of Sandy Hook Hair Co. He smiled at his work, cold wisps of breath slipping past his lips.

On either side of a ladder decorating an overhang were Amy Belval and Kris Svensson, who lifted adornments overhead. Below, with her pink scarf snug against her face, Amy Bennett placed sprigs of fir and bright red berries into sidewalk holiday displays in time for the tree lighting in Sandy Hook Center coming up on Saturday.

Bonnie Fredericks pulled her knit hat against her ears and reached for another bow to complete the festive tableau, while elsewhere in town lights have begun to sparkle against banisters, red bows cling to mailboxes, and residents trailed strands of lights along the ground, wrapping the untangled bunch around a front yard tree.

The season’s holiday spirit is emerging as one by one candles have begun appearing in front windows, cut Douglass firs rest on roof racks, and snow is in the forecast. Ram Pasture will host crowds of parents and children this Friday. Santa’s sleigh sits empty alongside Hawley Pond where children will wriggle from their mother’s embrace to rush toward Mr and Mrs Claus, distant bells jingling in their imaginations.