CARTHAGE, Mo. — It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Carthage.
“The earlier the better, I would skip Halloween,” said Cheryl Church, Merry Muralist.
For some, it’s the most magical time of the year, and they have no problem celebrating it a couple of months in advance.
That includes the local Merry Muralists, who are back for the fourth consecutive year, thanks to Vision Carthage, getting the Carthage Square ready for the holiday season.
“They are painting all of the windows of the downtown businesses, and this year we have a theme of Candyland, so you will see candy and Christmas all combined into one,” said Leanna Canfield, Vision Carthage Executive Director.
“It’s when all the families come together, and like I said, it is the sparkles, the colors, you just feel joyful, and the watching the kids’ excitement in their faces,” said Church.
Cheryl Church is one of the muralists decorating the Carthage Square.
She told me she’s had Christmas decorations out for some time now.
“I had the tree out, it wasn’t quite decorated, but I had everything out and was inventorying everything at Art Central to see how we were gonna put things up. Now, I’m not allowed to put my tree up at my house until the second week of November,” said Church.
But other muralists feel differently.
“I do think we need to wait until November 1st. I’m a solid Halloween girl, but once Halloween is over, we can skip the fall decor and go straight to Christmas,” said Alexandra Burnside, Merry Muralist.
The Merry Muralists also said how nice the uncharacteristically warm weather to start the month of November has been.
“Paint behaves really strangely in below 50-degrees weather, so do our artist fingers, so getting out here when it’s beautiful is wonderful,” said Burnside.
Representatives with Vision Carthage say they hope to have the Square fully decorated by the end of the month.
