- November 27, 2024
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Five Christmas trees line the fence in front of Steve and Stacey Lawton's mobile home. Each one is decorated with a different color scheme; purple and white, blue and silver (?) and the classic, red and green. A sixth tree, lightly decorated with a few candy canes, sits on the roof.
"The purple and white one is my favorite," Stacey Lawton said, smiling at her finished project. "Me and Steve decorated that one."
Last year, Stacey Lawton had the idea to collect and display fake Christmas trees and vowed to make it bigger every holiday season. This year's goal: make it into the newspaper.
Not only are her color-coded trees a sight for everyone to enjoy, but she also has presents ready to put under each tree and give away to children who come by for a visit. She's also opening her home for people to decorate stockings with their names on it and hang them on her fence between the trees.
"Christmas always made me so happy," she said. "It made me behave so I could get the good stuff."
The Lawtons have been living in their Ormond Beach mobile home off of New Britan Avenue for four years. They inherited it from their friend, Matthew D'alma, who died of live and kidney failure. There is a dedicated decoration just for him.
"He used to put stuffed animals up in that tree," Stacey Lawton said looking up at the branches that hung over her home. "So Steve hung candy canes up there for him. He would've love it."
Though Stacey Lawton's main reason for decorating is because she loves it, she said she also wants to bring a positive light to mobile home parks and the people who live in them.
"Not all of us are here because circumstances put us here," she said. "This is just where we ended up. So we'll make the best of it."
