COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — What season are you feeling? Scary, cranberry, or merry, that’s the question ABC7 set out to answer.
Out of the people ABC7 talked to, Thanksgiving was the winning season with nine votes. Halloween got two and Christmas got a surprising six! The poll inspired ABC7 to look for those early holiday decorators in our community because there has to be someone in Southwest Florida with more, we just have to find it.
The journey to find those decorators went further south to Collier County, where we stumbled upon a home and a family that gets in the spirit early every year. Paul and Winnie Schwinghammer live in Naples.
“I always start right after Halloween. Now my kids might say ‘No Mom, you start sooner than that,’” Winnie said.
She’s the brains behind all the decorating, inside and out. She uses her creativity and artistic skills to build her winter escape, even while it’s 80 degrees outside.
“Christmas for me, it’s just one of those things, the dogs have their own little Christmas tree down by their water bowl and we can’t let them forget that it’s Jesus’s birthday!” she said.
While it may be too early for some, Winnie said by getting her decorations up ahead of the holidays, she’s able to get into the spirit and enjoy it longer.
“I have friends who think I’m crazy and they’re not wrong. Decorating, it takes a minute but I enjoy every second and I just try to put all my love and passion into each tree,” she said. “I don’t get in a hurry and I felt like especially this year really, I felt like I just wanted to lighten up the house and turn the lights on and put joy in my heart and try to spread it.”
While this house is all decorated, it’s not about that. Winnie said it’s what you get out of it that matters, and science backs her up. Research from a study in The Journal of Environmental Psychology shows houses with decorations on the outside are considered by neighbors to be more “friendly and cohesive”. Similar studies also show early decorating can also cause a neurological shift that produces dopamine, the chemical in your brain that causes happiness.
Regardless of how early you decorate and what holiday you celebrate, may this year be less about what’s under the tree and more about who’s around it.
For more information on the study, click here.