When it comes to holiday decorating, Steve Getway goes big.
It all points to the heart of his love and devotion to Christmas – and his over-the-top enthusiasm for decorating for the holidays.
Getway’s gorgeous Exeter Township home is a showplace of holiday ornaments, trees and lights that is far and away one of the finest of its kind in all of Berks County.
It’s so spectacular that the house was featured on the 2011 Women’s Club of Exeter holiday house tour. And continuing good talk about the extensive interior and exterior Christmas décor brought it to the attention of Berks County Living.
Indeed, though Getway himself is a quiet, self-effacing gentleman, his holiday decorations are pretty much the opposite. They are effusive, expansive, but always tasteful.
Getway came to Berks via Boscov’s Department Stores, where he works as a home décor buyer. It’s his job to know what items folks want to purchase to brand their homes with unique styles.
He’s had a lot of on-the-job experience along the way to Berks. A Sharon, Mercer County, native, he is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University but first went just a bit west to Ohio to work for a small retailer.
Getway eventually found himself in demand in cities from Pittsburgh to New York to Boston, where he worked at major department store entities like Kauffman’s, Macy’s, the May Co. and Filene’s Basement.
He came to Boscov’s in 2007 via former chairman and chief executive Ken Lakin. Getway stayed on when Albert Boscov came out of retirement to again lead the department store chain founded by his father Solomon in Reading in 1911.
Though single, Getway wanted a large home when he knew Berks would be his base. Nine years ago he settled on a modern home with traditional touches, which was the featured Hearthstone Builders entry for the Parade of Homes in 2004.
Making Berks home base
The 3,300-square-foot home was less than two years old when he became the second owner. The configuration of the floor plan, the ornately carved mahogany kitchen cabinetry, large dining room and turreted den, rounded hallway, coffered ceilings, elegant first-floor master suite with its lovely en suite bath, dramatic two-story entry foyer – all these amenities spoke to him. And, too, there was the home’s location at a far, wooded end of the Glen Oley Farms development.
Once Getway was sold on the home, he set about applying personal touches – from installing aged leaded glass and stained glass windows purchased at antiques stores and online to creating a game room in the basement complete with curved walls, spectacular woodwork, and artwork that pretty much tells a part of his family’s story.
“I worked with Rodney Simmons of Imperial Contracting, who built the framework for the game room.
“I said: ‘Here’s what I want,’” he recalls. After the major framework and mechanics were completed, Getway told Simmons: ‘I’ll take it from here.’”
When he had the interior completed to his taste, Getway added major landscaping around the property, including rebuilding a pergola.
“It’s easy to take care of,” he says with a wink. “All it needs is lots of plants, weeding and a massive amount of mulch.”
But this mountain bike-riding retail store buyer is up to the challenge. And he was also up to the challenge of some serious holiday decorating after he bought the house.
Let the decorating begin
Getway’s passion for Christmas is in his DNA.
“Christmas is tradition for me,” he says. “I come from a great family; we were all very close. The holidays have always been a big time. Being single? Well, I was not going to let that hold me back.”
That last statement may be Getway’s biggest understatement of the interview.
When his neighbors, friends, and co-workers witnessed his first foray into exterior decoration – huge wreaths bearing big ball-shaped ornaments, other niceties and a spectrum of lights – they were entranced. And then someone suggested he be a part of the coming year’s women’s club holiday house tour.
“I thought I had better step up my game,” he says.
And so he did. He added highly decorated trees in many rooms; elaborate wreaths for every window, including one vertical window boasting several huge planters; an enormous festooned garland spanning the two-story staircase; and displays of collectibles that strike at the memories of many.
When the holiday decorations are that involved, one needs to get an early start – and having talented friends pitch in and help is critical.
“The year of the house tour, we got started right after Halloween,” says Getway. The same schedule was followed when he got the house prepared for this photo shoot.
Though Getway clearly has an eye for design, he insists he’s not a professional in the field.
“I am no designer.” he says, “My job offers me the ability to shop some of the best resources in the country. The designers they utilize create the most incredible, over-the-top presentations. I just get inspired to recreate some of what I see.”
He is quick to credit those who helped him decorate for the house tour.
“Kira Schwalenberg was the outstanding floral designer who contributed much time, effort and design skill for the 2011 Exeter home tour,” he says. “Part of her formal training was at Longwood Gardens.”
Getway also noted the help of a Boscov’s colleague.
“Much inspiration and direction came from Kyle Camp, owner of K&K, one of Boscov’s largest home décor vendors,” he says. “K&K was a great resource to purchase many of the materials utilized in the set up.”
In Getway’s home, which even outside the holiday season offers a lot of visual stimulation, the seasonal decorations do indeed “take it over the top.”
The dozens of exterior accoutrements and thousands of sparkling lights set his home apart from its stately neighbors.
When the front door opens, the foyer is the focus of holiday welcome and cheer.
The garland created by Schwalenberg dominates. There are so many accents on it, from ornaments to flowers to varied greens and lights, it’s almost impossible to take it all in. Indeed, like many of the decorations, it seems to offer something new and special with each look.
Getway is proud that each room and tree offers a unique theme.
Decorations in the formal living room live up to the name. The tree is filled with Victorian angels, white poinsettia flowers and elaborate ornaments.
A tree fronting French doors is largely populated with nutcrackers, many of which are part of his ceramic Fitz and Floyd collection. Other larger nutcrackers stand at attention around the tree, reinforcing the woodland theme.
Collecting Waterford crystal is a passion of Getway’s, and there are samples of the classic Irish crystal throughout the house. Most affecting of them all is an exquisite limited-edition Waterford Millennium Globe in the family room. Mounted on a small lighted base, its intricate carvings cast rainbow bursts on the ceiling and walls. Like many of the items in his home, this globe has a back story. It was stored in his office when he worked for Filene’s. The globe was a customer return because the buyer spotted a small bubble in it. When Getway decided to leave Filene’s, he asked if he might buy it and, amazingly, acquired it for less than $100.
In the dining room, the tree is covered with Waterford ornaments, its load of lights making the scores of ornaments sparkle all the more.
At the holidays, the book shelves in his turreted study are filled with Dickens Village Christmas series items. His parents began collecting the miniature buildings, a hobby he has continued.
Holiday decorations in the game room are a bit sparser, with a very simple trio of wooden trees and snow-white lights.
But the family photos in that room provide a sort of It’s A Wonderful Life effect. One wall boasts vintage photos of Getway’s grandfather, a conductor on the Erie Lackawanna Railway, who was based in Elmira, N.Y. The train on which his grandfather worked, “The Phoebe Snow,” figures prominently in the photos, as do remembrances of his experiences on the railway and visits from Getway’s young mom to her dad at work.
Because Getway’s retail buying experience has run the gamut from apparel to tabletop accessories and dishware, his home’s holiday décor includes all those elements.
“We all need Christmas china, don’t we?” he asks with a smile.
Getway said he expects to decorate a bit less this year, but entertaining at the holiday remains an important component of the season. He has enjoyed wowing his friends and family with the extreme decorations of 2011 and 2015 and reveled in the joy the décor added to holiday gatherings.
Just as he is on the road a lot for his work with Boscov’s, which this past October included the opening of the chain’s 45th store in Utica, N.Y., in which he played a critical role, Getway also makes the rounds at holiday time.
Though his parents have passed, he has a sister in York and two brothers in his native western Pennsylvania. He makes sure to spend time with them at the holidays.
His niece, the daughter of his sister, is a student at Kutztown University and is enjoying living at Getway’s home while she commutes to college.
“She pretty much has one whole area of the house to herself,” he says.
Getway, likely every girl’s ideal of the doting uncle, is building a separate kitchenette for her in his huge basement. “She likes to cook; I think she deserves this,” he says.
Nearby in a large unfinished area of the basement is where Getway stores away Christmas. In one corner, the artificial trees stand unobtrusively covered with plastic bags. Scores, yes scores, of large plastic tubs filled with holiday decorations line the walls. And on another wall, more than a dozen of the very large wreaths are hung for the off season, looking well out of sync with the grey basement walls.
While over-the-top decorating is not for everyone, Getway says it makes his holidays even more special – for now.
“When I retire, I’ll definitely get something smaller,” he says, “but for now I really love this place, especially at Christmas.”
By Donna Reed | Photos by John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
