Page 6 - TR What Women Want Nov 2016

6SS • What Women Want • An Advertising Supplement to the Three Rivers Edition • Sunday, November 20, 2016
EILISH PALMER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER After decorating her office and her home, Newport dentist Patti Mullins spearheaded an effort to decorate locations throughout Newport, beginning with the Iron Mountain Depot. Although many families
visit Mullins to see the outside of her home, people may not realize that during the holidays, her home’s interior is a wonderland of Christmas decorations that she has collected for more than 30 years.
Carry the LIGHT Newport dentist spreads seasonal joy throughout town
BY SARAH DECLERK SPECIAL SECTIONS WRITER
It’s not hard to spot the home of Newport dentist Patti Mullins come Christmastime; it’s the one with all the kids out front, gazing up at the building with a look that could spark a belief
in magic. Their eyes reflect the sparkling lights that adorn the home, line the yard and drip from the trees.
“I just love Christmas,” Mullins said. “I love to see kids’ bright, shiny eyes.”
Children have already visited her yard this year to drop notes into her new “letters to Santa” mailbox, which she checks regularly. Also new this year is a miniature green train filled with Christmas characters.
Images of Santa beckon from the porch and yard, and an assortment of nutcrackers, snow globes and other dec- orations spills from her yard down the street and into a house on the other side of the road, which Mullins uses to help contain a Christmas collection that is more than 30 years in the making.
“Lit up, it’s beautiful; it really is,” she said. In one of the windows of the second house, a virtual Santa walks up to the glass and waves at his adoring fans. This year, Mullins said, she hopes to have another projection fea- turing Santa landing his sleigh in the front yard. “Three little grandchildren of my neighbor think that Santa
lives next door because of the virtual Santa,” she added. What most visitors do not see, however, is the home’s tinseled interior — the piano laden with snow globes, the table-size Nativity scene, the candy train and vintage toy wreath. Three Arkansas-themed Santa figurines hold court in the living room, while a life-size Santa sculpture offers a serving tray in the kitchen, where ornaments and knick- knacks reveal Mullins’ love for the Arkansas Razorbacks
and Dallas Cowboys.
Christmas trees add a seasonal glow to every room.
Of all the trees, the classic, green-draped tree in the den is Mullins’ favorite, she said, but she also has two upside- down trees, a Razorback tree and even a tree in one shower.
Reindeer and elves frolic throughout the home, including one wizened elf who puts a hand against his forehead as if to say, “My goodness, we’ve been busy this year.”
Most of the adornments come from Decorator’s Warehouse in Dallas, which Mullins visits on frequent trips to watch the Cowboys. Although she has opened her home up for the occasional Tour of Homes to benefit charities, she usually just invites groups of friends over to spend Christmas Eve dining, decorating and sharing holiday memories.
“Very few people do the amount of things she has done for other people,” said Frank Plegge, who has known Mullins for most of her life. “Patti does it just [because] she wants to share. Every year, it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. We have people come from everywhere.”
Not only does Mullins decorate her home for the hol- iday season; she also spearheaded efforts to light up the entire town.
Her Christmas craze kicked off about 16 years ago, when Bambi Huff, the hygienist at Mullins’ practice, brought in a Jonesboro-based company to trim the dentist’s office.
Mullins said she wanted more ornamentation each year, and when it became too expensive to continue hiring the company, she decorated the office herself. Then she dec- orated her house. Then she set her sights on downtown.
Mullins asked Mayor David Stewart if she could deck out the Iron Mountain Depot, and with his blessing, she wrapped the building and nearby trees in shining lights.
“It just lit up the downtown. I mean, it was something to see,” Plegge said. “At the time, it was the only thing that had lighting for Christmas, and so she did it, and everybody loved it and went down to see it. Things grew from there, and she said, ‘If we can do that, we can do the courthouse.’”
During the holidays, the Jackson County Courthouse looks a bit like a gingerbread house. Visitors are greeted by a Santa sculpture and snowman sculpture, which are both made of lights and stand about 14 feet tall. Nearby is an even taller tree made of lights strung from the top of a pole to various points around the tree’s base. Smaller trees light up the ground below, and wreaths adorn every window.
After more than a decade of decorating, Mullins can easily supervise the construction of a whimsical Ferris wheel or give advice about the best technique to use when wrapping a tree, but it would be impossible for her to adorn all of Newport by herself.
“Now we have a committee of several people who get together several times a year,” she said. “We decide what we want to do and what kind of project we want to take on, and every year, it’s gotten bigger and bigger.”
The committee includes 12 volunteers: Mullins, Huff, Plegge, Buddy Rutledge, Ward Massey, Phil McDonald, Johnny Long, Jeff Phillips, Joey DuPree, Mark Ballard, Amanda Reynolds and Tristen Mount.
“It’s unbelievable now how many people are involved