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Local’s home is filled with a real passion for Christmas and friends
by Kate Mayberry Every fall, 83-year old Mildred Pulsinelli straps on her son’s old football knee pads and climbs into her attic crawl space. Along with cold weather, jingle bells and Christmas Carols, this is a sure sign that the holidays are coming. In the attic of her home at 227 West End Avenue in Massapequa are stored Christmas decorations that have been collected and lovingly saved, year after year. The holidays offer "Grandma Millie," as the neighborhood children call her, an opportunity to indulge in some of her favorite pastimes, decorating, shopping, and bringing people to her home for a visit. Pulsinelli, whose husband Arthur died seven years ago, adds to her collection of holiday decorations, buying something "whenever it strikes" her fancy, she said. One year, she flipped over pink rose-shaped lights on a white Christmas tres at the Milleridge Inn. She went to the store to purchase them, only to find out that they were gone.
"They didn’t have enough sets left, so the girl told me if I came back after the holidays she would undress the tree and give me those," said Pulsinelli. With a holiday spirit to her walk, Pulsinelli heads to the white tree in her main living room to admire the pink rose-shaped lights. She stretches out her hand to straighten one of the ornaments. She nonchalantly tends to a bare spot, with no pink flamingos, silver balls or golden ballerinas, that has caught her eye. "I’ll have to add another ornament or that’s going to really bother me," she said. "I have tons." In addition to the decorations that grace her home inside and out, Pulsinelli has a large display of Dickens’ Snow Village collectibles and six outdoor inflatables.
This year, she also bought a new step ladder to replace the old, shaky one she has used to put up the decorations every year. She’ll use it to hang swags and wreaths on her walls, to apply holly and poinsettias to anything that will stand still, and to top her window treatments with small blocks that spell out "Merry Christmas." She’s also light up the outside world with lights on her house. Her collection is so extensive that it spreads through seven of the rooms in her split-level home. They fill the rooms from floor to ceiling, climbing the walls, and covering the furniture and floors. "People give me more wonderful things all the time," she said with a smile. They say ‘we know you’ll appreciate this, Millie,'" she added. There are wreaths and swags and Christmas-themed needlepoints made by her sister on her walls. Her carpets are covered with Santa Claus rugs; the sofas and chairs are draped with holiday throws and pillows. Light fixtures are hung with holly. Chandeliers and vertical blinds are decorated with poinsettias. Some of Pulsinelli’s most-prized pieces include Lladros and Hummels, Lenox and crystal, but most importantly the few that are from Chicago’s Marshall Field’s and belonged to her mother. They are more than 100 years old. Pulsinelli puts up three Christmas trees of varying colors and sizes. She also sets out several versions of the Nativity as well as her own hand-made ceramics. She empties each breakfront and fills them again with silver bells and holiday dolls. All her day-to-day dishes and glasses are replaced by holly-rimmed holiday china. One small room is set up only to display a snowy shelf filled with Wonderful World of Oz porcelain Christmas scenes, and musical, movable, illuminated soldiers, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, carousels, marionettes, and ballerinas. The room is topped off and lit by a hanging Christmas lamp. Born and raised in Brooklyn as the youngest of 12 children, Pulsinelli said she acquired her rich taste for decorating with a passion from her brothers, then owners of the successful Chez Paris in Chicago where the Rat Pack, and particularly Frank Sinatra, performed and befriended her family. "My kids think I’m crazy," she adds with a broad smile and and a shrug of her shoulders. Pulsinelli refers to her two sons and two daughters, who all still live locally, as she notes some artwork on the wall over her steps that she’s decorated with poinsettia flowers. "They don’t like me on the ladder," she admits. Her 50-year marriage, produced her four children about whom she speaks with openness and pride. "I’m very fortunate that my kids are here," she said. "They are always watching over me." Chuck of Mt. Sinai, who has been a lifeguard at Tobay Beach for over 30 years, protests the most about her climbing, she said. Her daughter Lynne of Miller Place played host to her mother’s recuperation from two broken wrists over the spring. And Pulsinelli also relies heavily on her two most local children, Artie of Nassau Shores and Denise, who lives just two blocks away and welcomes her for dinner every night... because one thing Pulsinelli does not do, is cook. But she’ll order pizza, pour the soda, and dish out ice cream when kids arrive. Pulsinelli also has nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. "I just love it when everyone says, ‘Oh you just have to see Millie’s house.’" It is her way of bringing masses of visitors and children to her home. "She loves to have parties and gatherings," said Pulsinelli’s friend, Margaret Savoia of Bethpage. "She loves to have visitors in her home even though its nearly impossible to move around with all the decorations that fill the place." Despite her age, Pulsinelli is full of energy and her friends are constantly amazed at how she works on her decorations from morning to night. A vivacious woman, she calls herself a "party girl deep down." Her passion for spreading cheer and color doesn’t stop at her house, however. Each day Pulsinelli is dressed in vibrant colors. Her drawers are full of themed sweaters for every holiday. She’s also got a different pair of rhinestone-rimmed reading glasses to match every outfit and she’s known to don hot pink from the rings on her fingers to the sequins on her shoes. "When she chooses to wear pink, she wears all pink," Savoia said. "And if its raining that day... even the umbrella is pink." Savoia, who lives in a senior housing complex called the Apollo on the old Grumman property, is well aware of Pulsinelli’s penchant for parties. Together, the ladies attend social events and dances hosted by Savoia’s senior community. "All I have to do is call and say, ‘Millie do you wanna...’, Then she says ‘what time do you want me ready?’ "I can’t help myself," explained Pulsinelli. "I just love to have fun and be around people." And people do come to Millie Pulsinelli’s home. Every year her house is turned into a Christmas wonderland from November through January. She insists on children coming along, and she fusses over them as she welcomes neighbors and friends, handing out goody bags and gifts to children who revel in the opportunity to share her joy for the holidays. Every year she decorates all by herself, and this year was no exception, despite the two broken wrists she sustained this past April. "I’ve never had so much as a headache in my 83 years," she said. In her white-and pink-themed room, she stretches over a couch to plug in a large mechanical girl and boy in a one-horse open sleigh who turn and kiss one another repeatedly as the horse moves along. The girl is wearing a white fur-trimmed hat of her own that matches her muff, and the boy dons a white cap that belonged to her husband. "I do what I love, I surround myself with the things that I love, and I carry on," said Pulsinelli, who then showered her next visitors with generous amounts of attention, hugs, and goodies.
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