Decorator lights up holiday

EAST COUNTY —  Michelle Ragni found creativity while working at her family’s deli in Pennsylvania when she was 16 years old.

“I kind of got started being creative when my dad said, ‘Why don’t you dress up the window?’” Ragni said. “It looked pretty. I got some compliments. I thought maybe I had found my niche.”

Decades later, the former All God’s Children preschool teacher hasn’t stopped.

An interior decorator, Ragni now focuses much of her energy on crafting handmade wreaths from quality floral pieces, particularly for the Christmas holiday. She also creates silk floral arrangements.

Although Ragni is Jewish, she still decorates for Christmas because she loves the holiday and its decor so much. She begins arranging her own Christmas trees — she has seven of them — in September, and she has even designated one red-walled front room as the Christmas room all year round.

She spends about five days decorating the 9-and-a-half-foot tree she places in her living room.

“I place every ornament where it can be seen, and it fills a gap,” she says. “I take my time.”

Ragni says everything about the Christmas holiday — the lights and decorations and the happiness that comes with it — makes it her favorite time of year.

“I just love it,” she says.