Some might think it was trash. But Kirby McCartney saw it as treasure.

“I was looking for some way to get the Christmas spirit going for the girls, and my boss called me and said he had something for me,” said McCartney, residence hall director for Hawkes Hall at LaGrange College.

The “something” was a wooden sleigh and reindeer that had been used in the LaGrange Christmas parade and was headed for the scrap heap. McCartney rescued the holiday item.

“I was (working) in one of the other halls then, and had plenty of room to set it out on the porch,” she said.

When she moved to Hawkes Hall, “I put it in the meeting room. The girls love to take pictures in it, bring their boyfriends, so I try to get it up before the girls come back after Thanksgiving break.”

Katie Hein of Marietta likes the decoration.

“I remember the first year that she put it up, I was like wow,” Hein said. “I was really impressed because the whole campus goes all out in bringing the Christmas holidays to life for us.”

Brittany Fischer of Montgomery, Ala., said, “I thought about this. … I was walking around campus and thought it was just the neatest thing that this school does go out of its way when the holiday season comes. It is beautiful.”

Fischer said the sleigh and reindeer are fun and bring memories of “Christmas baking with my mom and sisters. We would bake cookies, and my sister would eat mine so Santa wouldn’t get any.”

Hannah Williams of Marietta said one of her favorite memories was of her “grandfather reading the Christmas story out of the King James Bible, and then we would go to a special service at church.”

Jacob Freeman of Montgomery was visiting Hawkes and said he thought “the sleigh is awesome. It helps makes the holiday time here go by faster, because of remembering things we do at home. I remember putting the tree up with Mom and helping Dad do the lights with a staple gun.”

— Do you have a special holiday tradition or unique decoration that you would like to share? E-mail bholland@lagrangenews.com or call (706)884-7311, Ext. 229.

Becky Holland can be reached at bholland@lagrangenews.com and (706)884-7311, Ext. 229.