The decoration of the Governor’s Executive Mansion is completed each year in time for the Holiday Open House Tours (Dec 11-14). Unfortunately for most North Carolina residents, the tours were limited to the daylight hours and getting a glimpse of the decorations at night once lit are are limited to peering through the brick walls and cast iron fencing that surround the grounds. For a 1967 view before the fence went up, check out The Blount Street Saga in the Reminiscences of a Raleigh Boy series.

Dolly Sickles of WRAL provides some interesting facts of the Executive Mansion decorations in her blog entry:

Musical groups from across the state will provide festive music during the public tours this week, when more than 12,000 people will tour the mansion. The trees and wreaths are from Barr Evergreens in Crumpler, Sturgill Tree Farms in West Jefferson, and Bluff Mountain Nursery in Hot Springs. The poinsettias are from Homewood Nursery in Raleigh. All other greenery is from the Executive Mansion grounds. Each year, it takes approximately 15 volunteers four days to decorate the Executive Mansion for Christmas.

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Photographing Raleigh’s Fayetteville St. Christmas Decorations

Holiday decorations on Fayetteville Street, Christmas 1965

A few nights ago John Morris and I visited Fayetteville St. and were bedazzled by the glittering Christmas lights lining the street.

I reminisced with John about the annual Raleigh Christmas parade which was held at night back in the 1960s (rather than on Saturday morning as it is now). My family would all head downtown for that event, and while Mom went shopping, Dad took my brothers and me to watch the parade.

We always staked out the corner at the Olivia Raney Library and Capitol Square. From that vantage point we could enjoy the parade as it made  its way up Hillsboro St., passed in front of the library before heading around the Square and then down Fayetteville St.

Afterwards, we would walk down Fayetteville St. to meet up with Mom. I remember being awestruck by the shimmering spectacle of the thousands of colored Christmas lights.

I related to John how I attempted back in 1965 to photograph the view down Fayetteville St. of the Christmas decorations at night. I found, however, that to my dismay, trying to capture all the colored lights on film was beyond the scope of my Kodak Instamatic camera.

Ultimately, the photograph ended up among the shuffle of the hundreds of photos I cranked out with my Instamatic back then. I only just recently ran across it again after all these years.

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If you are unfamiliar with The Beehive Collective, it is an organization based in Raleigh that pool together resources, host fundraisers and events, as well as coordinate other activities that benefit others in ways that have a greater impact than a contribution by a single individual may have. The idea behind the “collective” is to be a close-knit and industrious group that give back to the community through co-operation.

A little over a week ago, the 41 members of the Beehive Collective met at 101 Lounge and Cafe to vote on their first ever grantee that is in-line with their focus of 2008: Improving Economic Security & Financial Literacy for Young People and Low Income Individuals in our Community. The recipient of their first grant is Passage Home‘s Just Greening Communities intiative, which is a program in Southeast Raleigh that will take neighborhood residents and train them in the green jobs career field.
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