CORDOVA -- Christmas and the holiday season are a family affair. It is the season for families to gather, to share meals and stories, gifts and remembrances and, especially for the Evans family of Cordova, to decorate.

"We like to make her wishes come true," said Ronald Evans, speaking proudly of his mother, Ramona, and her visions of Christmas.

"Every year I have a vision of how I want our house to look," Ramona Evans says. "The entire family helps me put it together."

By trade, Mrs. Evans is an administrative assistant in the South Carolina State University Library; but her natural decorating talents often make her the one called on to decorate and create atmosphere for special occasions on campus.

Her husband, James, is a truck driver for Star Redi Mix during the day. During holiday seasons, however, he is the man with the tools and the know-how to make his wife's ideas come to life at their Cannon Bridge Road home. For example, he has used rebar and PVC pipe to fashion lighted arches over the driveway. Some of their neighbors on Cannon Bridge Road who also decorate often come to inspect James Evans' handiwork and to get ideas.

Most of the other neighbors who decorate their homes and yards are part of the Evans family. Behind the Evans house on Gumar Street live their children, James and Collette Evans, who are the recipients of James' and Ramona's decorations from previous years.

"We keep them in the family," Ramona Evans said, laughing. "When James and Collette are finished, decorations are passed to our daughter, Patrice, who lives not far away."

Mrs. Evans' brother and sister-in-law, Willie and Carolyn Woodbury, also live on Gumar Street. Cordova area residents will recognize the Woodbury's house as the one at which the car in the driveway is even outlined in lights.

"My brother is a ham," said Mrs. Evans, smiling.

Drive by the Evans' house at Easter, Independence Day, Halloween or Thanksgiving, and you will see an expression of the their family's cheer.

"We do this to make people happy," Mrs. Evans said. "We have people stop and look. One Christmas I was honored when a passerby stopped by to give me a hug. It gives my family pleasure to make people smile."

The Evans' home is just one of several cheerfully decorated houses on Cannon Bridge Road that make the short drive outside the Orangeburg city limits worthwhile.

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