ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 25, 1995 TAG: 9512260045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
FOR ABOUT FOUR WEEKS, Dorothy Weeks opens her home, a winter wonderland of 42 Christmas trees, more than 17,000 lights and more ornaments than a holiday craft store.
To most, the holiday season runs from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. To others, it may start shortly after Halloween.
But in Dorothy Weeks' home, it's Christmas nearly seven months of the year.
What Weeks does to her house isn't just decorating. She actually lives in a winter wonderland of 42 Christmas trees, more than 17,000 lights and more ornaments than a holiday craft store.
She says she doesn't believe in keeping all this to herself. For about four weeks, she opens her Bowman Avenue home in Salem to the public for tours.
She spends several months before the holiday getting ready and at least a month putting decorations away.
"Usually, I start the first of September," the 63-year-old says. "That's working eight to 10 hours a day."
But even that's pushing it, says Weeks, who also works at the Salem Civic Center as a banquet server. So she got a jump on her schedule this year by starting in July.
She does most of the decorating herself. Her husband works for Salem Tools Inc.
"The only thing she doesn't do is climb the trees outside," says Weeks' sister, Deane Pilling. "And if she couldn't get the men to do it, she would do that, too."
Weeks opens her doors to the public each year the night of the Salem Christmas Parade, Dec.1.
"There are a lot of people that come through [the house]'' after the parade, she says.
Although other Bowman Avenue residents get the decorating spirit, there's no mistaking Weeks' home.
Just so people won't miss her house, Weeks has posted a sign outside to welcome passers-by. Touring hours are from 6-10 each night until Jan. 1 - with the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
An electric train circling a ceramic Christmas village and a revolving apple tree displayed from a sliding-glass door preview what's inside the house.
An outdoor Nativity scene with ceramic characters, which Weeks made from a kit she bought in North Carolina, lures onlookers to the side entrance.
By that time, if passers-by haven't got the message that they are welcome to come in, one of Weeks' family members may greet them outside.
"Come on over so I can tell you about the house," Weeks' son, Steve Cooper, told a family that stopped for a closer look one night last week.
Weeks is usually somewhere around the house and most likely is cooking up some of the homemade fudge or pinwheel candies she serves visitors.
"Come on in, honey," she said to one timid tourist. "Look around."
Every room has a different theme.
There is the "clown room," which has a tree decorated with clown ornaments. Ceramic clowns deck the mantle over a toasty fireplace.
"This one here is more for little kids," Weeks says.
She calls one bedroom the "blue room." The other is decorated mostly in red. And the bathroom has a soaped-up Santa adorning the shower curtain.
The living room follows a Victorian theme, with Victorian dolls hanging from a full-size Christmas tree.
Most of the decorations, particularly the ceramics, were made by Weeks herself. She started making ceramics years ago and eventually filled her house with them.
Other decorations were bought or made by friends and given to Weeks over the years.
Just about every ornament, quilt or ceramic piece has a story behind it.
Ask her about the tree in the family room that is decorated with icicle ornaments and Weeks will tell you about Thelma Garst.
Garst was one of Weeks' customers when Weeks was a waitress at the Holiday Inn. Garst made the ornaments from crystal beads and began giving them to Weeks as Christmas gifts.
Eventually, Weeks had enough ornaments to decorate an entire tree.
Garst, 92, still visits Weeks at least once a year.
Each year, Weeks tries to add something new to entice those who tour her house regularly.
This year, she added artificial greenery around her door frames and included angels on the Victorian doll tree.
"Every year it keeps growing," Weeks says.
Weeks, who has lived in the same house for more than 40 years, always has decorated for Christmas, says her son, Cooper.
When her six children all lived at home, she enjoyed having their friends over to see the house.
Then those friends brought their parents.
"That was about 20,000 people ago," Cooper says.
Last year, Cooper says, he counted more than 3,000 names in the registry book. No one has totaled the number of visitors who have toured the house so far this year.
"There have been right many," Weeks says as she thumbs through this year's half-full registry.
One recent visitor came for the second time this year. Colleen Oliver, a teacher at Andrew Lewis Middle School and G.W. Carver Elementary School, says the first time she toured the house she brought a friend from Sweden.
Last Tuesday, she brought three of her students.
"That's how people hear about it - by word of mouth," Weeks says.
She doesn't charge for a tour, although she does accept donations.
With the money she receives, Weeks usually buys groceries or bakes pot-roast dinners for needy families. Sometimes she will take groceries to senior citizens at a retirement home.
Donations also helps with the power bill - and, of course, the approximately 100 pounds of sugar she goes through to make fudge and other goodies.
"That gets pretty expensive," she says.
But Weeks sees what she does almost as a form of charity. She is helping others celebrate Christmas, she says.
"It's a good way to celebrate Christ's birthday. We really need to celebrate."
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. Dorothy Weeks watches an electricby CNBtrain circle a ceramic Christmas village with her grandson Cody
Cooper, 2. At left, the clown tree is one of 42 trees that adorn the
grounds. color. 3. Weeks spends several months before the holiday
getting ready and at least a month putting decorations away. For the
63-year-old, it's Christmas nearly seven months of the year.