Adore Holiday 2020

theatrical Santa Claus merriment," she says. In addition to the ballet's influence on her creativity, Jennifer notes that her mom is a huge inspiration. "My mother was born on December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and was named Carole, thus Christmas is her favorite time of the year. She is extremely creative and would stay up all night transforming our home with imaginative decorations. Even now at age 80, 'Christmas Carole' still gathers our entire immediate family from near and far to photograph an annual themed Christmas card," Jennifer smiles. "She is amazing." Every year, the Rareshides choose a beautiful freshly cut Frasier Fir tree from Holy Name of Jesus School and it lasts perfectly until Twelfth Night when the tree comes down. "The lights are very important to me," she explains. "It takes as long as three Lifetime Christmas shows for me to weave the white lights into and around the entire tree," she laughs. Her large collection of hand blown ornaments include nods to The Nutcracker including a glass Clara

or two, handsome nutcracker princes, and less common characters from the ballet such as candy cane dancers and Polichinelles. She has lots of different garlands and several tree toppers, so each year she changes the look up by mixing the elements together in different ways. As far as gift wrapping goes, she loves it and has her process down pat. She sets up a utility table with rolls of wrapping paper and boxes of unique gift tags, decorative baubles, and pretty ribbon purchased from favorite local shops all year long. Armed with lots of tape, several pairs of scissors, and her handy glue gun, she starts her creative process. "This year, I started wrapping in October to reduce the stress of the countdown to Christmas and to be able to enjoy viewing the packages under the tree for a longer period of time," she explains. "We're at home more this year, so it makes sense to relax and start earlier. But I've also been known to throw an unwrapped Amazon Prime package behind the wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve as it arrived upon our departure for 4 p.m. mass at Holy Name."

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ADORE • NOVEMBER 2020