Mary Ann Hunter displays several decorated Christmas trees during the holiday season. The decor changes from year to year on all the trees except on in the living room, which she decorates for her nephews. Photo by Lance Dennee

“Too boring,” she said.

And not Independence Day.

“Also too boring. Just red, white and blue.”

Next to Christmas, her favorite time to put her creativity to work is Mardi Gras.

“I love anything that has to do with Mardi Gras,” she said. And so, come February, when “the good times roll,” there will be a tree decorated with Carnival beads, feathered masks, colorful wine goblets and everything else associated with New Orleans.

As one might expect, she goes all out at Christmas, with at least four trees, each one themed differently. And the decorations change from year to year, except for a Western-themed tree in her living room.

Mary Ann Hunter shows off the tree in her foyer, which is decorated with large spiders and other Halloween apparel.

“It’s for my nephews,” she explained. “They love horses, cattle, animals ...”

This tree showcases all types of memorabilia, from cowboy hats and riding gloves, a cowboy’s bandana and saddle bag. The tree skirt is made of cow hide, on which she places a bale of straw and a cow figure. Instead of greenery, there are pussy willows, cattails and sprigs of wheat.

The tree is not 100 percent Western, though. Some items that might seem a little out of place are there as memorabilia, such as the red velvet cap her mother made for her to wear in a first grade Christmas pageant, or the red scarf she wore when she dressed in traditional white and “ran with the bulls” in Pamplona, Spain, two summers ago.

“I am known to put anything on a Christmas tree,” she said.

Visitors to Mary Ann’s house never know what to expect.

“I can’t remember (how trees are decorated) from one year to another, so they’re always different. It’s fun doing something different,” she said.

When Halloween trick-or-treaters come to her house, they will be treated to lots of surprises. The jack-o’-lanterns in front of her house hint at what’s to come inside: the miniature village, with scaled-down pumpkins, witches and other Halloween-themed decorations in front of a black tree hung with tiny orange lighted pumpkins; black painted pumpkins embellished with brass thumbtacks, polka-dotted pumpkins, a copper-painted pumpkin with a feather hair-do; painted gourds in twisted shapes; and huge black spiders with white polka dots, spinning webs up a staircase.

A tree next to the stairs features more scary spiders, witches, ghosts and all kinds of spooky stuff. It becomes a ghoulish apparition of macabre mayhem when, with the clap of hands, the figures on the tree come to life with creepy moans, groans and eerie screams. An orange-colored chainsaw, as in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” joins in the fun with a buzzing saw sound.

Mary Ann’s spook night visitors number about 32 family and friends who live nearby. She imposes a firm restriction: everyone must arrive in costume from head to toe so they are unrecognizable. Part of the fun of the evening, she said, is dressing in disguise. She told of one Halloween when she dressed in a nun’s habit and her brother, unbeknownst to her, came as a priest. The similarity of clerical costumes drew them together all evening, she said, as if people with religious vocations find ease in each other’s company.

A tree in the corner of her living room is covered with masks of all kinds and descriptions that she has worn on Halloween through the years.

“I’ve never seen a ‘mask tree,’” she said. “It’s the one thing I think I could have a patent on.”

When her visitors arrive this Halloween, they will be asked to remove a mask from the tree and wear it to go trick-or-treating. There is a method in her plan. “That’ll help me take it down,” she said.

In the upcoming year Mary Ann will find another reason to celebrate with three themed trees: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Cup and the Pimlico thoroughbred horse races. Her head is already abuzz with ideas: jockey silks, racing caps, julep cups, fancy ladies’ hats, racing forms — the list gets longer.

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