Dimeo enjoys decorating for the Christmas holiday
Page 4 • Wednesday, December 24, 2014 • The Hammonton Gazette
“I always say I am the credit card and he
[Sarlo] is the designer. What you see here
now will probably be up until the Super
Bowl, at the very least. It is too much work
to have it taken down quickly. I always picture my heaven as Christmas trees and
snow. That is how I feel about it. To me, this
is Christmas. You don’t need gifts as long
as you have lights and all the decorations in
THG/Paul J. Macrie IV. To purchase photos in The Gazette, call (609) 704-1940.
Bill DiMeo (right) and close family friend Randy Sarlo sit with one of DiMeo’s Christmas trees between
them.
on them. This is all done now. This is all
TREE, from Page 1
house. So, his first priority was work, his renovated,” DiMeo said.
Sarlo does most of the holiday decorasecond priority was work, his third priority
was work and then the family was next. The tions for DiMeo’s home; while DiMeo will
only peace I found during those times was come up with additional items he feels will
the Christmas season. That was the only add that Christmas flavor. The decorations
time he [his father] was mellow because in begin to go up at the residence right before
the summer we had to work, after school Thanksgiving, they said.
we had to work, even if we came
home from college we had to work,
so Christmas was the only time we
had free time,” DiMeo said.
DiMeo is a huge admirer of
snowmen because he said he enjoyed snow as a child due to the
fact that it indicated the family didn’t have to work. He always appreciated the downtimes during the
Christmas holiday so the family
could be together.
“We would work wintertime and
all years ago. The tradition of decorating has been going on for more
than 60 years. To me, Christmas is
life. It is joy, it is peaceful and the
gift to me is decorations and the
good feeling of them. A lot of the
stuff we have in here and outside is
very old. I am a junk collector,”
DiMeo said.
The decorations in DiMeo’s
home have changed during the
years the tradition has taken place,
but the amount of space utilized
hasn’t. His living room, family
room, dining room and even the
downstairs bathroom are filled with
holiday-type decorations. In fact,
the chandelier in his dining room is
decorated. He continued to reflect
on what past Christmases meant to
him.
“It was very modest. The Christmas tree was also special in my life
because we didn’t see the Christmas tree until Christmas morning
growing up. It was one of our gifts
in the olden days. So, that was very
important to me. It used to be a real
tree, and now the reason I don’t
have a real tree anymore is because
I don’t like taking decorations
down. I like to prolong everything.
The real tree had to come down and
now they are artificial,” DiMeo
said.
Some of the trees in DiMeo’s
home stay up year-round now,
while the rest of the Christmas decorations and other holiday items
draped around the interior aren’t
taken down until after the Super
Bowl in February.
“A lot of the decorations in years
past were more like paper products,
cardboard. My uncle Joe had JD’s
Liquor in town, and when he was
done with the Christmas season he
would give me all of his decorations and I would take them here
and recreate. I would put flowers
Please
recycle this
paper.
here and outside,” DiMeo said.
DiMeo said Christmas means eternity to
him and the decorations inside and outside
his home are a symbol of that.
“Christmas is every day for me. I would
say it is eternal. It was always the only time
that I found peace in this house. I guess you
can say I am a Christmas fanatic,” DiMeo
said.