It looks a lot like Christmas at the Robertson house in Pascagoula
There's no question what season it is at Kenneth and Fay Robertson's home in Pascagoula. Two twig deer "graze" peacefully on the front lawn, and evergreen garlands grace the front door and porch. That's just the beginning.
There's a Christmas tree in the piano room. In the dining room, of course, and oh, not to mention the little one in the bathroom, the one in the kitchen, one in the bedroom and the huge one in the living room, and they all have their own ornaments. There are Christmas mugs and plates, plaques, a Fontanini creche, the couple's first Santa when Kenneth was in law school and Fay was a grad student at Ole Miss. Even a large metal crab on the wall gets boughs of greenery to celebrate the season.
The kitchen probably is the holiday epicenter. Fay, a retired school teacher, has kept a "candy store" there for years. It's actually a tempting stash of various candies stored in a screened piece of antique furniture.
"It's an antique pie safe I found, and we keep it locked when the grandchildren are here," Kenneth said.
"Oh, I've had the candy store for years," Fay said. "Neighborhood children all knew to come here."
The main kitchen tree sits atop the pie safe. This small tree holds food-themed ornaments, such as a corn cob Santa, a Santa painted on a dried okra pod, an angel fashioned from a pecan and a Santa painted on a crabshell.
There's another small tree on the kitchen counter, the peppermint tree. Fay found instructions on Pinterest for making ornaments from red-and-white peppermint candy, and this tree bears examples of the results -- peppermint trees, bows, candy canes, stockings and stars. The process involves putting the mints inside metal cookie cutters on parchment paper on a baking sheet and "baking" at a moderate temperature for a short period.
"The bows and the canes were the hardest to make, as you might imagine," Fay said.
She collects Coca-Cola memorabilia, and during the holidays, company-connected Santas join items displayed year-round.
A high chair that has been in the family for years now serves as a cookbook bookcase, and during this time of year, the Christmas cookbooks get top billing.
One bathroom's seasonal decor takes on a Coastal theme, with "beach bum" Santa hanging out in shorts, Hawaiian shirts, flip flops and sunglasses. Shell trees and an unusual tree made of stacked starfish add to the atmosphere.
The nearby guest bedroom has what Fay calls the Gail Pittman tree. This tree holds annual ornaments made by the Mississippi potter.
One wall of the living room is dedicated to Coast artist Stig Marcussen's annual Santa watercolors, featuring a South Mississippi Santa filling pelicans' beaks with toys; distributing gifts of underwear to good little alligators, armadillos, lizards and turtles, and Santa paddleboarding past boat houses on a bayou, his sack of toys balanced behind him.
The tree in this room holds some of the most personal ornaments, including ones with the Robertsons' grandsons' tiny handprints.
The dining room tree, appropriately, holds Lenox, Gorham and Waterford ornaments Fay has collected over the years, as well as Ocean Springs ornaments that blend in well with their porcelain and crystal neighbors. A part of her collection of glass trees sits atop a cabinet with its own story.
"Ken was chancery judge for many years," she said. "His grandfather had had this cabinet was made for the courthouse in Greene County, and when they were remodeling the courthouse there, Ken got it and put it in his office, and now we have it here."
Fay hesitates to say which ornament is her favorite.
"I cannot decide which is my favorite," she said, laughing. "I think it's why I have so many."
This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 7:25 PM with the headline "It looks a lot like Christmas at the Robertson house in Pascagoula ."