Christmas is Marilyn Schmah’s favourite time of the year, a trait that seems to run through the generations.
“I love transforming our house into a warm and welcoming place for family and friends and I’ve been doing it forever,” she said with a chuckle. “My mom was big on décor for Christmas too, and so was my grand-mom, and so are my daughters.”
She uses pinecones, hypericum, branches of pine and cedar, lime green disbud chrysanthemums and deciduous holly to create a festive flavour at home, while her husband turns his hand to making birch bark containers for candles, and to give away as presents.
They always invite a crowd, including family, a bachelor friend, an elderly couple who live behind them — “They drive over in a golf cart” — and numerous others who may be on their own.
“The house sleeps 17 and we usually have around 15 or more for a big dinner, during which we often end up sitting on each others’ laps. Last Christmas, I was on my husband’s lap.”
She and her husband, Chris, are used to winging it.
While in their 20s, they decided to move west to Salt Spring Island, driving out in an old donut truck. “Back in 1979, there were only about 2,900 residents and now there are close to 11,000.”
The island may have changed, but they’ve always been enthralled by the natural beauty around them.
“There is something very comfortable about an island lifestyle,” said Marilyn, whose roots stretch back to Manitou Island in Lake Superior.
The couple found a property they could afford and built the whole house themselves, including all the windows, a three-storey-high chimney, a turret and a circular staircase that leads up to the bedrooms.
“Chris has some wood engineering training and I had a design background, so we drafted something that reflected the spirit of the woods, and then we made it,” she said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
“We built the house with upright logs partly because we wanted large windows, and you can’t do that with traditional log houses. We really wanted to see and feel nature all around.”
Many trees were cut down on the property and others were hauled there with the donut truck that Chris’s parents had given them for a wedding present.
“We peeled all the logs ourselves … and brought all the shakes down from Port Alberni.
“The truck was so overloaded and heavy that we burst all four tires going up the Malahat, but we had a guitar with us so we had a party, slept on top of the shakes and hitched down in the morning.” The versatile vehicle was then converted into a travel trailer so they could live in it while building the house.
Marilyn recalled that a friend of their daughter’s, a young man studying engineering at UBC, came to visit once and said the house looked as if it had been designed by a squirrel on crack, “but we wanted lots of room, and nooks and crannies to have fun in.”
A house like this one is never finished, said Chris, who was born in Germany and has a degree in forestry.
“It was certainly a test. We started building in 1979 and moved in in 1982. We mixed and poured 40 yards of concrete into the house ourselves and the basement walls are 18 inches thick.
“We hung a block in the middle of the house site, connected it to three spar trees and had a winch on the front of the truck which we used to drag logs and lift them.
“It was all pretty straightforward, but it was a very energy-consuming and intensive project.”
During this time, Chris got a job at Foxglove Farm & Garden Supply, raking the grounds for $5 an hour, but soon worked his way up to manager.
One day, he asked the owners if they wanted to take on a partner. They weren’t interested, but decided to sell instead. The entire Schmah family — including daughters Aleta, Kayla and Camille — all worked at the centre at one time. (Aleta is now an equine veterinarian, Kayla is a mother living in Newport Beach and Camille is a stylist in a Seattle garden centre.)
Since buying Foxglove in 1987, they have been decorating their business as well as their home.
“I always decorate the store first and then the house,” said Marilyn, who starts with lights.
“It is so dull at this time of year, we need lots of lights, and that’s really important in a log house, which has dark walls. Putting them up outside takes the better part of a week, because I still work every day.
“I put lights up on the tree and then the girls put on the décor. Camille always puts up her own nativity scene in the window and I string lights around most of the windows because I like the reflections.”
They always have a real tree — a balsam for the fragrance.
“One year, we had a tree that was two storeys high,” Marilyn said. “We had to decorate from the second level and ended up throwing decorations at it. “
On the mantle, she uses artificial greenery for safety’s sake, adding a little of the real thing at the last minute.
“I try to create a special woodland wonderland for the children, to capture the magic of Christmas. It’s wonderful to see everything through children’s eyes at this time of year.”
Everyone in her family likes to bake, including all three girls and Chris. Marilyn does breads and stollen, filled with treats and nuts, while Chris takes on the free-range turkey, which he slow-cooks in the wood stove. Aleta loves making pies and Camille decorates cookies, while Kayla, who is vegan and has a blog called Marmalade Grenade, creates the healthy recipes.
When the baking is done, they gather around the piano in the sunroom and enjoy lots of music at Christmas.
It’s a tradition they’ve kept alive since Chris’s mother used to visit, said Marilyn.
“When Oma was alive and still used to come for Christmas, she never left a page of the carol book unsung. She played beautifully and sang like a songbird.”
