What Made You a Decker?

[Sickie Ickie]

I may be reviving old ground here, but with new members- I thoughtthis may be fun.

What made YOU decide to become a Decker? (Decorate for Christmas?)

For me, it was my children. My father died when I was 15-16yrs old and I lost the spirit. Fast forward to being married in my 30s and having my first child born, and already starting to become a Haunter working on props. My spirit was reborn by looking forward to seeing Christmas through my children's eyes. Now that I am 40, I really want to do it big for both holidays propwise when I get back on my feet again. :D

[Rybcon]

I just like the time of the year and the spirit it brings. From our first apartment in 1979 my wife and I always decorated and we do it for ourselves.

[Just Whisper]

I have always been in love with the lights and have always tried to put up lots of lights. After I got started seriously haunting about 10 years ago I began to really see the possibilities in decking. I already had a few yard decorations I had bought at the store, but most I didn't think were amazing. Also, it was a case of all my neighbors having the same decorations. I wanted something original and fun. So I started incorporating my prop building into decking. I mostly do it for the neighbor kids (and myself), but even my teenagers enjoy the lights and animation.

[Decorinator]

Same for me - I've loved the magic of Christmas ever since I was small. Once my sister and I were old enough to not believe in Santa, our mom told us "that meant that now we got to BE Santa!" What a smart lady. We loved to decorate and make crafts and cookies and other simple things that kept the dream alive as long as we could for our little brother and sister. Somehow, I never stopped being a Christmas elf. :smiley:

When I first married and had a baby, we were pretty darn poor. Paper chains, paper snowflakes, and whatever I could scrounge at the thrift store still made for a merry holiday. That cheap tree from the Chubby and Tubby looked pretty grand to us, especially with a little toddler to share it with.

A lot of time has passed, and my budget is a lot more generous, but I'm still the same little kid who loves the holidays, and just wants to make people smile.

Share the love and Season's Greetings!!! :littlepresent:

[Buckeyelights]

Growing up one of our traditions was driving around looking at the lights. Probably a lot of you did that. Well to me it was really special because we did it on my birthday, the 18th one week before Christmas. My dad put a few things up, make a couple cut-outs; the old ones where you'd glue a poster onto the plywood. Anyway I remember helping him when I was pretty young, probably just got in the way. But I thought it was so cool.....some things just don't change.

I still love driving around looking at even the smallest displays. Getting a little idea here and there.

I say I do it for the kids, not just mine, but all kids and maybe part of that is true. But really I do it for myself. Damn, I just love 'em.

Joe

[bethene]

I think I always had it in me, it started with my dad, getting just the right tree, we haad the most decorated house on the street, not that it was grand by some of todays standards, but I loved it! we also went to look at lights, and went downtown Grand Rapids which had not only alot of lights, lots of animated figures in the store fronts.I loved them, also a store had a santas wonderland, it was magical to a child!!
when I was first married we had a mobile home, went all over to find just the right tree too, it as so big and fat it took up half the living room LOL! , and it kept growing from there! I don't do the prop type things like alot of you, but I love the lights and trees of christmas so much!

[Craig]

My 78 year old father regales me with tales of how I ALWAYS loved Christmas. He could not BELIEVE how much I always loved it. As a child, my lovely mother would decorate for my brother and me. I adored my mother. She always went out of her way to make the holiday special for us. I think it was HER who instilled the love of the holiday in me at an early age. My brother and I were two of the lucky few. Our parents ADORED each other for 53 years. How can you NOT love Christmas with an example like that?

To this DAY I love Christmas, I choke up singing the old familiar carols, I cry easily in joy at the thought of the birth of Christ. I DELIGHT in the pleasure I can bring to others with my efforts at decorating the house and yard, and my heart SINGS the worship of my lord.

Why do I love Christmas? Do you really need to ask? WHAT is not to love about it?:)

[madame leota]

Growing up, we did very little for the holidays - any holiday. My mother always acted like it was just a huge chore and she only did as little as she could get away with. All our decorations fit in one very small box and if the lights started to fade or a few bulbs burnt out, oh well, we just used them anyway. I remember the year she declared there would be no more real trees - I think I was ten. Someone had given her this really awful three foot artificial tree that she could put on a table and we used that darn thing till it would no longer hold its branches.
I always knew that when I moved out, I would decorate and celebrate the holidays to their fullest, and that's what I try to do. My mom, on the other hand, still holds to her dislike of decor. She now has a HORRIBLE two foot fibre optic tree (I think it came from the dollar store) that she gets out of the closet and sets on the table on Christmas eve and that is IT! My Halloween display just completely blows her mind and she will never understand how I can be so frivolous as to keep buying more Christmas lights every year!
So I guess you could say that I decorate because I am a rebel - I get true satifaction out of saying, "Look mom - my house is ALL LIT UP and it makes me HAPPY!!!" ;)

[propmistress]

My husband loves Christmas!!!!!!! His first job was even making and selling Christmas decorations.

For him.. it doesn't feel like home, the holidays, or another year passing unless there are a ton of decorations up.

My family never decorated....and if it wasn't for my husband... I don't know if I would be a decker or decorate like a Christmas fanatic... but I love him .. and I am beginning to love the holiday season.

And I want I create holiday traditions for our kids... once we have kids.

[navidadnm2010]

For me, it was that I had been through some pretty bad things in my life, it was my way of healing myself.
I never got to celebrate a "Mostly Traditional" Christmas at any point in my life.
I wanted a Traditional Christmas, so I invented it with all the Brags and Fuss that I possibly could.

[theedwin]

What made me a decker was the display at the mall when I was just a wee one. It was a "Santa's Workshop" where the Elves hammered the same nail year after year, sawed the same log year after year, painted the same toy year after year. I was amazed how these things could keep doing the same thing..... year after year!

I was always a tinkerer. My sister gave me a low RPM motor once when I was 7 or 8 (the sister who comes out to Vegas all the time) from a display at her work. I still have that motor, and it still works! The first thing I made from that motor was a revolving light (like on a cop car). I have made several other things from that motor as well! LOL

When I got older, I started working for the neighbors "cleaning out barns" or baling hay. I saved all my money and started buying Christmas lights. Too bad I didn't know about the after Christmas sales then...

My Mom was always big on all the holidays, so I think that sort of got me going as well.

I didn't start tinkering with any sort of animated displays until I moved to Vegas in 2007. It was 2008 that I did my first display, and I really really enjoyed it. I thought to myself that this is a hobby that I can do and enjoy. Before this, I never really had a "hobby". Now it is pretty much all I can think about as far a fun goes. (I even lose sleep over it!)

[coffee4106]

My mom decorated.. my dad grumbled. (he worked for the state highway and plowed the snow all winter so HATED and still hates winter)... however... he ALWAYS put up Christmas lights!!! you would see a faint smile when he was done.. Now... i complain about the cold and snow... but still do the decorating! HA

[chris]

My parents made me a decker. My dad would put up the lights outside and mom would work on the inside. Dad always decorated the outside different every year.

[Winter_Witch]

We have always decorated. We had a big 6 or 7 foot stocking for my grandparents. My other grandma always had a "flocked" tree with either all red, blue or green decorations & lights. Our house always had homemade decorations, nothing like what I do by todays standards, but I still remember how much joy they brought to me and my family.

There was a big spaghetti dinner every Christmas Eve at one grandma's house. Christmas morning was spent opening gifts at home then a big family Christmas dinner later in the day at grandma and grandpa's house with all the Aunts/Uncles & Cousins.

So for me, although most of this doesn't happen anymore, the decking at my house is a way of keeping it alive through my kids and hopefully we will have a house full of kids and family again in the future through them and their future families.

I like to make as much of my own decorations as possible, that way, even if they look similar to other peoples decorations, they still really are one of a kind made by my two little hands to share with my loved ones.