news-record.com

Christmas comes but once a year;

The excitement grows and grows.

That giving spirit present in our lives

Brings a feeling "good will" bestows!

You've heard of Christmas in July, but have you ever heard of Christmas in early spring, like maybe March?

If you had driven by the residence of Brian and Susan Davis on Old Randleman Road from mid-March to early April this year, you probably would have done a double take and turned around and driven by again.

There were all kinds of Christmas lights, wreaths and garlands dressing up the Davis residence into a winter wonderland.

This big production was for the upcoming Trim a Tree Program for Lowe's Hardware.

A long, meticulous process takes place from the time a house is chosen until all the products are displayed on and around the house, pictures taken and props and decorations packed up and moved on to the next project.

During the off season (in this case spring) a small group from Kreber Enterprises, located in High Point, and Lowe's rode around looking for houses to display Christmas products. A different criterion is used each year, and this year a white two-story house with a wrap-around porch was what the team needed.

Pictures were taken of the Davis house along with several other houses, and then the pictures were submitted to several committees with a representative from Lowe's making the final choice of homes.

The Davis home was one of the homes chosen to display Lowe's Christmas decorations.

Anne Puchyr, account manager for Kreber, oversaw the whole process.

"It is always a challenge to get all the equipment, decorations and crew at the chosen site and ready for shooting the pictures."

The crew from Kreber Enterprises brought in large trucks filled with props and decorations.

A generator was set up for electricity, thus relieving the homeowner of any electrical responsibility.

An industrious crew immediately got to work climbing on the roof placing icicles along the edge of the roof and putting wreaths on the two-story dormer windows.

The front porch had garland draped over the railing and the front door was adorned with a large wreath and a beautifully decorated Christmas tree on each side. Small individual lights were placed in each window and tiny net lights were tossed across the shrubbery. Extra fake shrubs were brought in to fill open spaces.

All this activity took place during the day with not a minute lost in preparation for night shooting for optimum light results.

A blanket of white cotton batting was rolled out on the lawn in front of the house and smoothed out, giving the effect of a white Christmas.

For close-ups, synthetic granular snow was added for texture with more fake snow added for a shiny effect. The fake snow on the steps looked so real it made you look for footprints climbing the steps.

Toys and inflated props were placed strategically on the glistening white lawn.

At sundown all the lights came on and the filming crew prepared for the important job of shooting the pictures.

Some of the crew even worked inside the house adjusting lamps as dusk began to settle around the area.

After the cameras were set up on tripods, interior designers from Kreber and a contact designer from Lowe's created the scene wanted and a photographer put the scene on the monitor.

When everything was just right, flashing bulbs went off portraying the decorated house and lawn from different angles. The lights were adjusted with switches and lowered or brightened in order to make the setting look different and more pictures were taken.

Then the designers started moving the props and decorations around until things were placed differently, another picture was placed on the monitor, lights adjusted and pictures were taken.

This process was repeated over and over way into the night with as many changes of props and decorations as needed. Each day new props and decorations were brought in with the process being repeated many times.

After the pictures were taken other inflated objects and models were merged in the scene at the filming site, as well as, at Kreber's studio.

The finished pictures were placed on boxes with Christmas products inside and put on sale at Lowe's in October.

You can't help but get a wonderful, happy feeling when you are around others with the Christmas spirit. It doesn't matter what season of the year -- the feeling is catching. So sing those Christmas carols, bake those cookies and help others all year long and when Christmas rolls around in December you'll be ready for all the festivities!

Jane Kimel is a retired teacher and a lifelong resident of Pleasant Garden.