A Trimper family Christmas: presence over presents

Dec. 4—Grinches beware: You'll have a hard time stealing Christmas from the Trimpers of Schuylkill Haven.

The family's vintage Cape Cod is a citadel of Christmas, past and present.

Inside and out, from every nook and cranny, the home of Chris and Carol Ann Trimper shouts Merry Christmas.

"We hope it makes everybody joyful," said Chris, 44, a software technician. "We hope that everybody who walks into our house will feel happy."

Indeed, even the grinchiest grinch would struggle in not being moved by the feeling of warmth that permeates the Trimper household.

Every room on the main floor has a Christmas tree, mostly adorned with vintage ornaments from the 1950s and 1960s.

The living room tree, a seven-footer, is crowned by a reproduction of a tinsel star popular when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president and a new Chevy cost around $2,500. Bright, shiny bell ornaments dance on its branches and tinsel glitters like newly-fallen snow.

"A Christmas tree must have tinsel," Carol Ann insisted, "I love Christmas trees with tinsel."

Carol Ann's considerable decorative skills are demonstrated on a tree in the laundry room, which is wrapped in candy garland and topped by a Santa Claus hat. An artist who works at home, she is accompanied by a vintage tinsel tree with 60-year-old satin ornaments next to her workbench.

Let it snow

In a sense, it's always snowing at the Trimpers during the month of December.

That's because there are about a dozen large snowflakes mounted in every window.

The Trimper children — Stephen, 12, and Kaydence, 10 — have made 72 hand-cut snowflakes measuring about six inches square.

"In the morning, we put on Bing, make hot chocolate and cut out snowflakes," said Carol Ann, who homeschools her children.

Bing is, naturally, Bing Crosby. The Trimpers prefer Bing's recording of "The Little Drummer Boy" with David Bowie, now somewhat of a holiday classic.

Carol Ann, whose artistic medium is paper, has passed on her talent to her children.

Working freehand, the kids have created an array of designs in their snowflakes without relying on patterns. In any given window, it appears as if no two flakes are alike.

Kaydence is particularly adept with the scissors. Her dexterity is apparent in a snowflake that depicts girls holding hands and forming a circle around a Christmas tree.

Stephen, an avid reader and Lego builder, says people seem kinder at Christmastime.

"I feel happiness and joy in the air," he said. "Christmas makes me so happy."

Childhood memories

As a child, Carol Ann spent a lot of time with her grandparents, Joseph and Mary Elizabeth Smith, in the Jalappa section of Pottsville.

Christmas was an important time in the Smith household, and it formed a lasting impression on Carol Ann.

One of her most treasured possessions is the Santa Claus cookie jar from her grandmother's kitchen.

"I, literally, have modeled Christmas after my gram's," Carol Ann said. "Everything my grandmother did has stuck with me."

Seeing it as a season filled with good intentions, it is a time for sharing good will with family and friends.

In the coming days, the extended Trimper family will gather to bake cookies and make gingerbread houses. Carol Ann recently conducted a class in cookie decorating at The Maid's Quarters B&B and Tearoom in Pottsville.

"Christmas is not about presents," Carol Ann insisted, "it's about presence."

Contact the writer: rdevlin@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6007