Deck the halls, er, walls with boughs of holly, images of candles, and bursts of color.

South Orange resident Nancy Heins-Glaser took it upon herself to organize a group of volunteers to beautify the windows of South Orange just in time for the holiday season.  Among their accomplishments this year are the windows of the vacant buildings on 114 - 120 West South Orange Avenue, as well as other vacant storefronts on South Orange Avenue, Stony’s, the Village Diner and Other Mothers.

“We started out by wanting to show that people really did care and notice about stores that were empty,” said Heins-Glaser.  So we started filling them with black standardized paper, to try and meet the ordinance.  Then we decided that we could do something positive to lift up the town.  Thus we became the ‘Window Warriors’ and these (windows) became the ‘Windows of Wonder.’”

According to Heins-Glaser, the feedback from the community has been “phenomenal.” 

“People just stop and say ‘thank you,’ ‘thanks for doing that, it looks beautiful,’ and that’s certainly part of the holiday spirit,” said Heins-Glaser.  “It’s more important to give than to receive.  So it’s nice getting the feedback we have gotten back.”

Even though the weather is starting to turn, that hasn’t stopped the ‘Window Warriors’ from finishing their job, mainly because of the positive feedback keeping them going.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” said John Overall, one of the volunteers.  “It gets cold, a bit rainy some times, but we really appreciate the community feedback.”

Catch the decorations -- painted on the windows -- while the weather is good. After all, one of the windows reads, "Let it snow!"

Happy Holidays!