88 years of Christmas has taught this Eugene resident the meaning of the season
Mary Lou Dunn was born a Noel baby 88 years ago this month.
When she was a child growing up in Eastern Oregon, presents were mostly practical.
“Our family did not have much money, so we got handmade clothes and things like that for Christmas,” Dunn said. “My mother was a skilled seamstress. She would look at a picture of something and make it to fit me."
One memory stands out, however. When Dunn was 5 years old, she received a beautiful “store-bought” doll. She named it Baby Sunshine. The excitement of that moment became intertwined with memories of her birthday, the holiday and family gatherings.
“I am still part child I think,” she said. “I just love Christmas. I just love the festivity, the people. To me, it is just life."
As Dunn grew older, she found herself collecting Christmas decorations. A Santa Claus doll here, a nutcracker there. She inherited a collection of delicate tree ornaments from her aunt. Friends added to her collection over the years. Her collection grew and grew and grew.
In the meantime, Dunn worked as a school teacher at Maple Elementary School in Springfield for 34 years. Her husband, Bob Dunn, owned The Prairie Schooner Bar & Grill for 27 years before he died in 2006.
When she and her husband built a new home in North Eugene, she instructed a skeptical electrician to install an abundance of electrical outlets throughout the house, anticipating the display of her large collection of toy Christmas houses, holiday lights and carol-singing dolls. The decorations fill every room of her home.
Dunn now shares the house with her daughter, Debbie Osborne.
“We look after each other,” Osborne said.
When asked to put a total number to the many Christmas decorations around her, Dunn shrugs, “It is kind of hard to count them all,” she admitted.
As Dunn leads a tour of her home, pointing out and telling stories about specific decorations, a three-foot-tall polar bear doll, accompanied by two penguins, sings and dances to "Deck the Halls."
“Follow me in merry measure, Fa la la la la la la la! While I tell of Yuletide treasure, Fa la la la la la la la!,” the bear sang.
Many of the objects are gifts, but Dunn remembers falling in love with a life-sized nutcracker during a visit to Costco. As she unloaded the large box with a friend she remembers worrying, “I hope the neighbors don’t think I am moving a coffin into my house,” she said with a laugh.
Recently, Emily Brink sent an email to The Register-Guard. Her husband, Paul Brink, had helped Dunn with some outside holiday decorations through his business, Oregon Christmas Lighting.
“We were BLOWN away by the care and craft inside her home,” Brink wrote.
“It would be such a heartwarming story to share with your readers, and a delight for the eyes if you were able to interview and photograph the winter wonderland that is her home and life's passion,” Brink added.
Dunn claims she is done collecting, but will continue to set up displays as long as she is able.
“It makes the home warm and cozy,” she said.
“They are my headache to put away and take care of and everyone else just gets to enjoy them,” Dunn said with a laugh. “It is always enjoyable to me.”
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene resident Mary Lou Dunn's Christmas decorations still delight
