Each year, Randy Pate decorates the lobby of Willow Tree Apartments with holiday decorations.

Randy Pate of Hurricane has been quite busy decorating for Christmas at Willow Tree Village Apartments, literally decking the halls with boughs of (artificial) greenery. Pate, who is a resident at the apartment complex, enjoys adorning the first floor lobby, mail room, front porch, and exterior grounds with seasonal décor. Some of his decorations are homemade – his Christmas display in the lobby this year features towering stacks of presents which he created from cardboard boxes wrapped in wrapping paper. Other decorations include a dancing Santa statue and figurines of pinguins, elves, bears, moose, and snowmen. Outside, Pate has set up various Christmas inflatables around the first-floor windows.

Pate decorates for almost every holiday – Christmas, Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, and Autumn/Halloween. There is a white Christmas tree in the lobby which stays up year-round, and Pate switches out the decorations according to the season. The one holiday he does not typically decorate for is Thanksgiving, because he puts so much work into his Halloween and Christmas setups. In the past, his Halloween décor has featured a skeleton sitting in a chest of coins; a homemade replica of Audrey II from the “Little Shop of Horrors” musical and film; and a cauldron that looks as though it is sitting in red hot embers. Pate says that his two favorite holidays are Halloween and Christmas.

During the seven years that Pate has lived at Willow Tree Village, he has achieved a degree of fame and popularity for his holiday decorations. He says that many of the residents ask him when he is going to start decorating for the holidays.

After Christmas is over, Pate says he plans to put up some News Years themed decorations on the tree in the lobby to celebrate the arrival of 2024.