With overcast skies and chilly temperatures at the end of November, Mike Maddox of Magee put up the last of his exterior Christmas decorations and lights in preparation for the season.
His wife DeAnna, nicknamed DeeDee, has always loved Christmas. Mike’s outside decorations have always been his labor of love for her. Now they are a tribute to DeeDee, who died in January 2024.
Maddox decorates about 2 ½ acres around the house that he and DeeDee built themselves. Mike remembers, “We poured the slab Thanksgiving Eve in 1979.” The couple moved in on February 1, 1980. They married in May 1977, right after DeeDee graduated from high school. “I knew the day I met DeAnna— I knew right then in my heart ‘this is my wife,’” Maddox said. They have two grown children and six grandchildren.
Decorating outside the house initially began in 1989 when Maddox purchased lights to put in some newly planted bushes along the driveway. “It grew from there. Each two or three years you’d say ‘I’m going to do this.’ Now I guess, the full yard, I’ve been doing about 20 years or so.” Maddox estimates he has between 45,000 and 50,000 lights, which adds about $300 to his power bill for the month of December. He runs them from sundown to 9:30 p.m. each day. This year the yard will be lit from December 5 to Christmas Day. He begins dismantling the display on December 26.
In 2007/2008 Maddox had the barn put in and soon began decorating it with lights too. Then he added the windmill that he also outlines in lights. “I’ve always wanted a windmill with that barn.” He said he would do more on the back portion by the barn but that “I’ve gotten too old to do more.” It takes about 50 hours, five to six days, to complete the exterior decorations.
The outside décor is the tip of the iceberg. Inside Christmas shines throughout the whole house. At least every room has a touch of the season, some in greater quantity than others. “She loved Christmas and the holidays. We’ve got Christmas dishes! I haven’t put them out yet.”
Maddox is also an extensive woodworker, saying that he made 90 percent of his Christmas decorations. His shop where he does most of his work us adjacent to the house.
He also decorates the old pickup truck in the yard between the barn and house but says, “This may be my last hurrah. Usually I can do the barn in about four to five hours. It took me 7 ½ hours to do this year, almost twice as long doing it by myself.” Maddox then added, “When next year comes around I’ll probably say ‘Well’ because everybody says ‘You got to put them up!,’” with the understanding that he will go ahead with the display.
Front yard decorations include a nativity and bass fisherman with his catch, acknowledging his own love of fishing. Maddox still enjoys fishing but it does not hold the same thrill since DeeDee’s death. They enjoyed fishing at Spring Water Ranch in Johns, Miss., but also went to other spots like Natchez State Park Lake and places in Florida and Texas.
In the house is a table Maddox has set aside for special photos of Mike and DeeDee and their grandchildren. He made a nameplate for her that sits below the table top. Maddox still tries to do something each year at Christmas to honor her.
The dining room is Christmas central with the focal point the tall Christmas tree in the corner. This year Maddox added a selection of snowmen to honor DeeDee’s love for them. Originally black and white he repainted them in bright colors of green, blue, purple and orange. Maddox said that his daughter, Candace, is going to make a sign for the collection: DeeDee’s Snow Village. In the same room is a tree he also made just for her.
Maddox retired from NAPA Auto Parts in 2022. “I had to,” he said. “I was going to retire in May of ’22. I got Covid in December of ’21. It went to my leg. I wasn’t sick sick; I wasn’t deathly sick. But my leg swelled up and it was hard as a light pole. It hurt.”
After a series of doctor visits between Saturday night and Monday morning Maddox was sent immediately to the ER as his leg had a 99 percent blockage with blood clots. His son Matt took him to St. Dominic’s, where after a 12 hour wait in the ER he was seen and then taken straight away to surgery. Over the course of several weeks Maddox had three different surgeries to remove all of the blood clots. He retired early. DeeDee retired from the Simpson County School System in 2021.
Mike and DeeDee had only a few short years together after retirement before she died, but he has many wonderful memories of their years together. “We had a perfect marriage – if there was ever a perfect marriage. For 47 years we never had a fight. We didn’t fuss. We loved loving each other. She was the best thing that ever happened to me. I know it was for her too. It was a God given marriage.”
And that is why Maddox does what he does at Christmas.
