Most of us concur that the holiday season starts on Thanksgiving Day and continues through New Year’s Day.
But Joanne and Joel Frantz don’t share that viewpoint.
For them, the holidays – decoration-wise – kick off Nov. 1 and aren’t truly wrapped up until Martin Luther King Jr. Day in mid-January.
This retired couple’s passion for the holidays is outshone only by the unique decorations carefully placed in every room of their expansive, rural Bern Township home. And when you spend that kind of time on decorating, you want to get weeks and weeks of pleasure from that annual labor of love.
“We do everything, including the three bedrooms and the loft above the master bedroom,” says Joel. “It’s a tradition, and it’s really a very important part of what the holidays are to us.”
The Holiday Couple
“People call us Mr. and Mrs. Christmas,” says Joanne with a smile.
The day after Halloween, the Frantzes, retired Wilson School District teachers, pack up the scary stuff and begin the monstrous task of unpacking dozens of boxes of Christmas decorations that fully occupy one of their two basements.
Each box is carefully labeled, indicating in which room its contents are to be displayed. Both agree that organization is vital to the decorating process. That they share a zeal for the holidays also makes the intense decorating a pleasure rather than a chore.
A creamy interior palette provides a perfect backdrop for the decorations. Indeed, the monochromatic scheme is enhanced by the clear lights that fill the large natural tree in the living room, the trees in every other room, the window candles, the six-foot wreath over the garage, and the angels carefully placed around the swimming pool to the rear of the home.
“We like the soft look, the glow the lights give off,” says Joanne.
The Frantzes are admitted romantics. They both have an affinity for the Victorian era despite living in a home built well into the last half of the 20th century.
A Little Victorian
The retrofitting of everything — from the wood doorway trim, which features the era’s signature bullseye carved corner blocks, to the stately columns between the sunken kitchen and what had been the dining room of the original section of the house, to the installation of an intricately executed antique quarter-sawn oak fireplace, once a part of a Reading home, in the living room — speaks to that love of an earlier time.
Still there is a crispness to the interior and absolutely no feeling of clutter despite the many, many decorations.
“We’ve stayed away from gaudy Victorian,” says Joel. He cites the décor of the 1980 movie Somewhere in Time, set in the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, as a key inspiration.
As the 2011 addition was in process, Joanne designed the kitchen concept and worked with Dutchwood Kitchens of Myerstown and Allen Henn of D&B Elite Construction to make it a reality.
Off-white dominates and also clears the way for an intriguing combination of state-of-the-art appliances and Victorian-era touches, including crown and dental moldings; raised panel cabinet doors; and detailed, illuminated built-ins, including a hutch that, during the holidays, displays one of the Frantzes’ several sets of holiday china. A creamy granite surface with grey and beige veining tops the counters as well as the center island, which is also decorated for the holidays.
One of the built-ins showcases the couple’s Fitz and Floyd nutcracker collections.
“They are the one thing that stays out all year,” says Joanne.
The Tree’s the Thing
But everything else, pretty much, gets its prized placement during the holidays. The living room is anchored by the big natural tree at the tall and wide front windows; it is decorated with love, patience and a lot of sweat. The tree is always selected, placed and decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving – and remains the crown jewel of the home’s holiday décor.
When the couple’s two children, Heather, now 40, and Greg, now 37, were young, they played pivotal roles in setting up the tree with their parents.
In those days, Joel harvested the trees from the base of the Frantz back yard. Some of those trees were as high as 15 feet and required the help of four men to bring them into the house and set them up.
“The kids and I would run around and inside and out to let Joel know if it was standing straight,” Joanne recalls. “Those trees really weighed a lot, and the guys would get tired holding them up.”
While the couple cherishes those memories, today their living room tree is more in the 10- to 12-foot range and is purchased from nearby Penn Ridge Nursery.
“It’s so much easier to bring a baled tree in here and to set it up,” says Joel, adding the owner generously provides the Frantzes with lots of evergreen boughs for their various displays indoors and out.
While the tree may now be a bit smaller, the decorating remains just as involved.
Joel estimates between 1,200 and 1,500 lights are laced through the tree. It takes a full day to place the lights. In his efforts to avoid a problematic center or top string burning out, Joel has developed a placement plan that seems to work. Just as all the boxes of decorations are labeled, so is each string of lights labeled, according to its years. The newest lights go to the top and then the middle while the older lights are relegated to the bottom.
“That’s seemed to work pretty well for us,” he says.
“Putting the lights on the tree can be tedious,” says Joanne. “So, I get out the wine, beer bread, and put on some favorite Christmas music.”
After the lights come the ornaments – hundreds of them. While the smaller artificial trees placed throughout the house may be stored away with ornaments intact, each natural tree gets a fresh yearly treatment.
Stories Abound
Like virtually every decoration in the house, each ornament pretty much has its own story. Many are from students the couple taught while at the Whitfield and Cornwall elementary schools. Others are from their travels, from friends or family, or from those worthwhile after-Christmas sales. With hundreds of ornaments available, the Frantzes do change some out from year to year.
Complementing the big tree is a virtual village of Department 56 buildings set on the shelves of what, in other seasons, serves as the entertainment center. No one really misses the flat-screen television when they can take in three different illuminated tableaux complete with trees, tiny animals and people.
The dining room exudes its own Victorian vibe, topped by a beamed ceiling interspersed with nine weighty plaster medallions. Joanne painted the medallions to match the ceiling, while Joel found the joists and studs to which they needed to be attached.
“He had to drill until he hit a beam,” she recalls of the process. Three sturdy screws and construction glue were applied to each. And then a 10-foot ladder topped with a pile of books was engaged to make certain the glue hardened and each medallion was secure.
The impact of this one-of-a-kind ceiling is even more enhanced by a large traditional brass chandelier that catches the light of the clear and ruby-toned crystal goblets on the formally set dining room table and is reflected in the glass doors of the nearby hutch that holds the family’s two sets of fine holiday china.
Raised three steps above the dining room is a walkway that features a gas-insert fireplace, the surround of which nearly slipped out of their reach when an interior decorator snapped it up for a Philadelphia home. Luckily, it didn’t fit, and the Frantzes got it. In the off-holiday season, its mantel is home to the couple’s collection of unique three-legged teacups.
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A Traditional Gathering
That walkway gets a lot of use all year long, no more so than during the couple’s annual St. Nicholas Day party, now in its 24th year, that can draw more than 60 family members and friends. The party, held as close to the official day as possible, is a feast of homemade finger foods (the one exception – a favorite soup brought yearly by a friend), libations and holiday cheer.
“We just love to entertain,” says Joanne. “We put a high value on family and friends, some of whom we’ve had for 40 years.”
For days in advance, the Frantzes make meatball stroganoff, bourbon hot dogs (with a bit of extra bourbon added to the crockpot on party day) and small sandwiches stuffed with homemade chicken, egg or tuna salad.
Guests often supply the desserts, and the Frantzes always make sure to have back-up goodies from Dosie Dough in Wyomissing.
Despite the number of guests, the Frantzes use all their holiday china, flatware and glassware for the occasion. This is one house where paper plates and plastic cutlery never see the light of day. Though the clean-up can last into the wee hours of the next day, Joel and Joanne wouldn’t have it any other way.
And St. Nicholas Day is not the occasion for a sit-down dinner. Guests are encouraged to mingle and tour the house to enjoy all the decorations. Red and white wine is stationed in the living room. Joel mixes up two gallons of whiskey sour and there is plenty of soda, water and juices.
If the day’s weather is mild, Joel opens up his very own “Red Parrot Grill” around the swimming pool area and part of the party moves outdoors.
As guests take the back stairs from the dining room to the master bedroom, they encounter a small kitchenette, complete with refrigerator, coffee station and pantry. This nook, with a balcony just off it facing rolling farmland and low hills, is a favorite spot for the couple. Here, for the party, they stock it with chocolates and red wine.
A Good Sled
Also off the master bedroom, up a sturdy wooden spiral staircase, is a cozy loft. There are two favored pieces here, each with a story. A William and Mary desk purchased from Oley Valley Architectural Antiques in Denver, Lancaster County, which had its own five minutes of fame on an HGTV show, was somewhat of a bargain because of a stubborn ink spot that ultimately fell victim to Joel’s determined cleaning.
The other is a vintage sled purchased for Joanne’s mother from Pomeroy’s in Reading. The sled still bears the store logo as well as her mom’s name across the steering bar. Joanne recalls the heavy use the sled got during her own childhood in West Wyomissing. Because the blades had long lost their paint, her old sled was faster than her friends’ new and shiny Radio Flyers.
“Everyone wanted my sled,” she recalls. Today, though the sled is stationary and decorated for the holidays, her guests might harbor similar sentiments about it now.
Good Old St. Nick
In the master bedroom, above the fireplace, hangs a large painting of St. Nicholas, which, true to Frantz form, also has a backstory. It was ordered from a business which, unfortunately, burned down about the same time the artwork was delivered. However, due to its size, the item never made it into the doomed building and ended up returned to its origin. In short order, it made its way unscathed to the couple.
Also off the master, the attached bathroom is a winter wonderland. The seashell-adorned tree is a year-round fixture. A crystal chandelier brightens the room in the dark midwinter and, on the large countertop, there is a set of sparkling Waterford seahorse candlesticks and a complementary seahorse compote.
“We like the beach theme – and we love Waterford,” Joanne says.
Despite living in the country and having a short driveway, parking for the big house party is always at a premium. The lawn becomes the parking lot, and that can be a challenge depending on the weather. When early snowstorms have threatened to curtail attendance, the Frantzes have not only their driveway plowed, but also the entire lawn.
“You wouldn’t believe how often it’s snowed in early December,” Joanne says.
Getting the decorating done in time for their party means the couple has time for shopping, writing out and sending two sets of Christmas cards, and continuing to entertain.
There are smaller gatherings throughout the month, including Christmas teas served in the dining room featuring scrumptious homemade cookies: hazelnut, macadamia nut, toffee and white chocolate.
When the children and grandchildren come home, there’s more good eating – the Christmas Eve seafood feast with many courses and the hearty Christmas morning breakfast. And, there is, of course, time to watch the favorite holiday movies, The Polar Express and the original Miracle on 34th Street.
Joanne and Joel enjoy and bask in their young grandchildren’s wide-eyed joy at the fully decorated house. Their adult children, both living in Maryland with their families, like many millennials, opt for a simpler life and décor.
The couple has no plans to cut back on their extensive decorating. Indeed, they always are on the lookout for new items well priced after the post-Christmas sales.
“Decorating and entertaining is tradition for us and a very important part of the holiday season,” Joel says.
“We love our family and friends,” says Joanne. “We do this for them – and for ourselves as well.”
