Beech Tree News Network

It’s barely Thanksgiving season, but one Morgantown resident has been in the Christmas spirit since before Halloween.

Juanita Neighbors has been making Christmas trees and other decorations for several weeks, and her creations are genuine works of art. Using a discarded artificial Christmas tree, pine cones, and simple beads she has filled her little home behind the Presbyterian Church with the holiday spirit.

When we talked it was warm, and not yet Halloween, but it was already Christmas in Juanita’s house.

She said she likes to make decorations. It takes her back to the era of the Great Depression, and her childhood. “We couldn’t just go out and buy our decorations. We had some store-bought decorations, but we had to make a lot of things too. It’s what people did then.”

Her living work room is full of small Christmas trees, and each one takes at least four hours for her to make. Neighbors, 84, doesn’t let her arthritis and the pain in her hands stop her from doing her craft. She admits that it takes plenty of Bio-Freeze and other ointments to keep going, but she enjoys what she does and doesn’t plan to stop. Plus working on the trees and other projects helps her fill sleepless nights.

“I don’t sleep well sometimes because of my arthritis,” said Juanita, “so when I can’t sleep I get up and work on my trees and listen to the TV.”

Her daughter, Brenda Thompson, helps pick up needed supplies, and even provided the old artificial Christmas tree. For her pine cones she need look no further than her niece, Gwen Simpson, and nephew Gayle Huff.

“I told them to pick up some pine cones for me and they brought me a garbage bag full,” said Neighbors.

Some of her trees are as tall as 24”, with her “little” trees coming in at about 6”. One of her little trees caught the eye of one of her nieces, but Juanita couldn’t part with the little wonder. Instead she went back to work and made one for her niece to keep.

Asked if she sells the items she’s quick to point out that they don’t have a price. “I give them to family and friends,” she said. She’s already taken six of her creations to various family members, and as other members of her family see the trees the requests for their own trees keep coming in.

Besides the trees she makes wreaths, table pieces, and anything else she can think up. She’s modest about her creativity, but it’s clear there is a lot of talent in her old hands. She doesn’t work from patterns, and she didn’t get her inspiration from a book or internet site. The discarded tree gave her an idea, and even though her body is in a wheelchair most of the time from her arthritis, her mind ran with the idea and the trees were born.

Besides being an artist, Juanita is also one of Butler County’s many oral historians. Our afternoon together led to conversations ranging from her Christmas memories, to her reminiscing about simpler, better times.

“When I was a girl we didn’t have all the things we have now, but we were better off,” she said. She recalls growing up in Woodbury fondly, and even shared tales of her friendship with my late mother.

“Ernestine (Finney) and them lived across the road from us in Woodbury,” she recalled. “When it was warm weather we would sit out on the roof at night and yell back and forth across the road to each other and pretend we were talking on the telephone.”  She continued, “We didn’t have a lot back then, so we had to find our fun where we could.”

Juanita is looking forward to Christmas, and not just because her home is filled with her hand-made trees. “I’ve always liked Christmas, it’s my favorite time of year.”

There’s a good chance she’s going to make someone else’s Christmas better with her trees. “I don’t think they’re any big deal,” she said, “but people like them, and I enjoy making them, I guess that’s the main thing.”

Story by Joe K. Morris, Beech Tree News/WLBQ1570