When we first enter the long holiday season from Halloween through New Year’s, we look for the signs of the season: the first shelves of trick-or-treat candy, the first pumpkin pie, the first Christmas song played in a store, the first list of new year’s resolutions. But we know that all seasons come to an end, and we know that the 2021 fall/winter season is finished when cardboard boxes fill with Christmas ornaments, the tree comes down, and doors are stripped of ribbons and wreaths.

Such is the case at Perry Wellness Center, where we caught the removal in process. After boxes were packed, only the live wreaths remained, as they would not be stored but provide their scent and color as long as possible. After a successful season of selling Christmas trees and wreaths at Rudy’s Happy Patch Market and decorating the campus in holiday finery, the process was bittersweet. All agreed that holiday decorating is more fun than taking it all down. But PWC founder and CEO Stuart Perry’s attitude helped.

“I like Christmas,” Stuart Perry enthused. “It is fun to decorate and remember past celebrations, but we try to instruct peers that Christmas is all year. The lights and decorations do come down, but the spirit of the season lives all year.”

Just like the carefully made wreaths of holiday greenery, the spirit of the season lingers in our hearts if we allow it.

In the photo above, Monica Bolton braves the wind and cold temperatures of the first Monday of the new year, removing lights, ornaments, and other holiday decorations at the south entrance to Rudy’s Happy Patch Market.