Homemade Christmas dolls take over this Carolina Forest yard

Driving straight through Plantation Lakes, you’ll see lights, Santas and signs of Christmas. But as you go back, you’ll see a home with lights, arches, sleighs and dolls dressed in an early-American fashion. The home stands out among the big houses and palm trees of the neighborhood.

For Ella Dixon, from Boone, North Carolina and who has lived in the Carolina Forest home for over a decade, making her home unique is a labor of love, combining her passion for Christmas and crafting. She tries to make, reproduce or combine items she finds and turn them into her display.

“When we built this house I had exactly in mind what I wanted,” she said standing in her home five days before Christmas. “I told the electrician I am going to have a lot of lights.”

This display features dolls standing around dressed like carolers, a nativity scene and an arch that Dixon said is an homage to the one in New York’s Central Park. She also has a vintage sleigh that she helped restore.

“I’ve always loved sleighs,” she said.

Dixon’s mom is where she gets her love of making stuff herself. And over the years, she has made a lot for her Christmas display. All the work is done at the house. Her home’s attic is her workshop where she creates all of the outfits and props.

“When I make something, I don’t really need a pattern, I just do it,” she said.

While the crafting is year round, Dixon starts putting her decorations out at the end of September. She doesn’t light up her display until after Thanksgiving, though. But her cheer is year round.

Her husband Bill helps too. He has even driven to Boone, North Carolina to get real snow so their granddaughter would see a real white Christmas.

The tree and display on the inside of the house stays up all year, making her home a year-round celebration. The inside display is just as grand as the outside, with a decorated tree reaching up toward the top of the ceiling. More caroler dolls and figurines, which Dixon collects, surround her towering Christmas tree.

All her efforts do not go unnoticed by the neighbors and people who drive by. People will stop to take photos with the nativity scene or to marvel at the lights.

“Sometimes four or five cars will stop outside,” she said.

Some even ask if Dixon will make them an outfit like the dolls are wearing. She said she only makes clothes for her daughter and family.

Even through a particularly rainy Christmas season, the display stays out. Dixon said the clothes hold up well and still look good once dried after the storm has passed. The season is coming to an end, and the outdoor display will be going back into Dixon’s workshop.

But they’ll be back. Dixon loves Christmas and the labor is an annual one she and others look forward to.

“Everybody loves it and they look forward to it every year,” she said. “They know this is here, they come by every year.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2018 at 12:31 PM.