01 Dec 2025 Deck the Halls with Dee Dee
By Phyllis Ormsby
Christmas is everywhere in Dee Dee and Mac McCullough’s house. Each year it takes the couple about a week to transform their Conway home into a showcase of Christmas collectibles of all kinds, complete with trees galore and huge displays of Christmas villages, mugs and Santas.
“I’ve just always been a Christmas person,” said Dee Dee. “I counted this year while we were putting everything out, and I have 50 of the figurine-type Santas and over 90 mugs. Everyone is different. I had no idea when I started collecting them (that) they made so many different types of mugs.”
On the large tree in the living room is a mix of old and new ornaments, some dating from her childhood, and one, a spray of ribbons and hearts made of sugar, that came from the couple’s wedding cake in 1979. “I sprayed that with shellac, but I figured it would never last. But it still looks good!” Dee Dee said.
Her husband has his own tree, covered with Snoopy and Coke ornaments, and in their sunroom stands their travel tree, covered with ornaments from the different countries they have visited.
When they decorate for Christmas, every photo and piece of art on the walls is replaced by holiday-themed art, and every shelf is covered with figurines of all kinds. Every single piece represents a memory.
An intricate needlepoint of an Old World Santa is displayed over the fireplace. “My oldest daughter, Rebecca, did that for me and gave it to me about 25 years ago,” Dee Dee said. A stuffed Rudolph and Santa under the travel tree was a present from Mac at their first Christmas together. A large ceramic lighted Christmas tree in the den was a present from Dee Dee’s grandmother. Her younger daughter, Beth, helped put together a Santa and train puzzle last year that they had framed and hung in their den.
A vintage lighted snowman, the kind you would display in your yard, holds a place of honor in the living room. “For Rebecca’s first Christmas, we bought this lighted snowman and we put him outside, and we did that every year. But he was stolen in 1995. My other daughter, Beth, started looking for a replacement for him. She found this one at a flea market and that was my Christmas present last year,” Dee Dee said. “He looks a lot like our original one.”
Their dining room table is flanked on three sides by Department 56 Village pieces. “This is my favorite story to tell,” she said. “Each one of these pieces relates to my family. This hospital represents my daughter Rebecca, who is a nurse. The Starbucks? My daughter Beth worked at one when she was in college. The Hartford House? My husband is from Hartford, Conn.” On the table is a set of Spode Christmas china that Mac gave her one Christmas.
Lined up along the stairs are festive tins that once held popcorn. “My hubby loves popcorn and every year, somebody gives him a tin,” Dee Dee said. Even their kitchen canisters are Christmas-themed. She also collects and displays decorative plates; each one is taken down and replaced by a Christmas-themed plate.
One of their framed Christmas pieces started as a family tradition years ago. “My mother got this Christmas card with an angel on it. She cut the angel out and put it on a gift package that year, and then the tradition was, every year somebody had to give a gift to another family member with that angel on it. I finally had it framed and now we hang it up every year,” Dee Dee said.
Mac retired from the Air Force and she is an educator who retired 17 years ago. When they aren’t decorating for Christmas or scouring flea markets for Christmas finds, the McCulloughs love to travel and particularly enjoy cruises. “We really love Viking cruises. You see a lot but you only have to unpack once,” Mac said.
Dee Dee admits that decorating their entire house is a lot of work, but they enjoy it. “We used to put it up in the attic, but it got too big, and we got too old to put it up there. So now we store it in tubs in our garage,” she said, laughing. “I’ve had to slow down a little bit, though. I’m running out of room!”
