Every holiday season, the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion in downtown Jackson comes alive with twinkling Christmas lights and festive decorations. All of these magical touches are made possible by Mississippi artists.
This year’s theme is “Made in Mississippi” and honors the state’s many industries, including small business, agriculture and tourism. In July, Governor Tate Reeves and First Lady Elee Reeves’ team chose this theme to honor the local businesses, large and small, that have shaped the state.
April Hunter of Quitman was chosen as this year’s guest decorator. Hunter took over Fantasy Cottage Flowers and Gifts in 2008, eight years after opening. In the 16 years since, Fantasy Cottage has blossomed and become an important part of the community. Hunter provides flowers for weddings, funerals and everything in between, serving not only Clarke County, but all of Mississippi and even some surrounding states.
Hunter’s work within the Governor’s Mansion began when she was selected as florist in November 2022. Shortly after moving into the Governor’s Mansion, the First Lady started the florist initiative as a way to support Mississippi artists. Each chosen florist provides flower arrangements for the country house throughout the month. Hunter worked as a florist four more times in March and November 2023 and in July and September 2024.
Fantasy Cottage would act as a florist again in November 2024. However, once Hunter and her team were chosen for the Christmas decorations, November was replaced by December.
Guest decorators for Christmas at the Governor’s Mansion are chosen each year from a pool of candidates. Hunter’s application was one of seven proposals submitted to the First Lady in July. Hunter and her son Cody Hunter worked on the proposal, which detailed her vision for the “Made in Mississippi” theme if Fantasy Cottage was chosen.
“We didn’t want the decorations to be spread all over the place and it be a hodgepodge everywhere,” Hunter said. “We actually wanted each room to have its own thing. For example, one of the bedrooms is the tourist room. Another bedroom we decorated more around mom-and-pop shops in Mississippi. Another bedroom focused on Mississippi artists – your basket weavers, your potters. There are many Walter Anderson, McCarty’s (Pottery), Peter’s Pottery and Wolfe Studio.
The Governor’s Mansion was decorated with many Christmas trees, with the theme “Made in Mississippi,” during the Capital City Lights event in Jackson on Friday, December 6, 2024.
On September 5, Mississippi First Lady called Hunter and told her that Fantasy Cottage had been chosen to decorate the Governor’s Mansion. Hunter and her team spent the next two months preparing. On Sunday, December 1, Hunter and eight team members got to work bringing in the decorations. Everything had to be ready for a meeting at the mansion the following Wednesday.
By 5:30 PM on Tuesday, December 3, Hunter’s work was completed. Hunter’s decorations fill several bedrooms, the hall, a meeting room and two parlors in the mansion.
“I believe sometimes big things come in small packages,” Hunter said. “You don’t necessarily need a team of fifty people to get a job done. Sometimes it’s better to have a small number of hard-working individuals, and each person plays a vital role.”
Governor Reeves provided Hunter with a list of more than 300 Mississippi-owned businesses that were founded or that he believes have flourished during his tenure as governor. To integrate all the companies, Hunter created a gold star with each company’s name printed on the front. The gold stars hang from the only living Christmas tree in the country house, a 4.5 meter high tree in the Rose Salon.
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A deer, harvested by Danny Joe Jones on December 23, 2008, adorns a corner in the Governor’s Mansion, according to the plaque, seen on Friday, December 6, 2024, along with Christmas trees.
The talk of the season, Hunter said, is the stuffed deer standing in front of a Christmas tree in the Gold Parlor, the room decorated to celebrate Mississippi’s agricultural industry. The deer, harvested by Danny Joe Jones in 2008, previously spent the better part of a decade greeting guests at Long’s Fish Camp, a restaurant in Enterprise, MS.
After longtime owner Rep. Troy Smith sold Long’s Fish Camp a few years ago, the new owners sent the deer back to Jones. While brainstorming what decorations to put in the farm room, Hunter suddenly thought of that deer. She called Representative Smith who told Hunter that the deer had been returned to Jones, who happened to be a regular at Fantasy Cottage. Jones then loaned the deer, whose mount had since been broken, to Hunter’s team. Hunter had the mount refurbished and the deer traveled from the Enterprise to Jackson.
“Apparently no one has ever brought a deer to the mansion before,” Hunter joked. “We did it… If I could have bottled up the reaction of the mansion staff when we showed up that day to start decorating and we literally walked in with a real deer… we were pretty tough.”
The deer is accompanied in the Gold Parlor by replica crocodile heads and a turkey fan, contrasting with more traditional, festive Christmas decorations, such as the golden pine cones scattered around the room.
Beth Hennington created a gingerbread replica of the Governor’s Mansion, which was displayed at the entrance during the Capital City Lights event in Jackson on Friday, December 6, 2024.
Among the extravagant Christmas decorations at the entrance, a gingerbread replica of the Governor’s Mansion stands to greet guests. The replica is made entirely by hand by Madison-based baker Beth Hennington.
Hennington has almost ten years of experience with her cookie company The Vanillan. In 2022, Hennington’s career took an unexpected turn when she won Food Network’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge.” Since her win on the Food Network, Hennington’s business has grown in ways she never thought possible. Hennington sold her first dozen cookies for $35. Now a dozen of Hennington’s cookies cost $125, and as of December she is booked until August of next year.
Looking at the detailed work on the gingerbread replica of the Governor’s Mansion, you might think that Hennington has a long career in making gingerbread houses. In reality, Hennington had never made anything like the replica in her life. Previously, the only gingerbread houses she made were simple houses with four walls and a roof, which come in pre-cut kits. Over the summer, Hennington contacted the Governor’s Mansion and asked if she could deliver the replica for Christmas.
“I’ve made several structures, but I’ve never made a really big structure,” Hennington said. ‘So why not? First, let’s make a replica of the Governor’s House. I mean, what was I thinking?’
Armed with cookie cutters and piping bags, Hennington said she spent about 80 hours in her own kitchen making the gingerbread replica from Saturday, November 30 to Wednesday, December 4, leaving only a few hours for sleep. She used her own photos of the mansion and some provided aerial views as a guide. The process, Hennington said, involved a lot of trial and error.
“I debated putting it together in the mansion, and then I thought: if I have any emergencies, problems, problems in the kitchen of the mansion where I don’t feel comfortable, where I don’t know where everything is , it might make it worse,” Hennington said.
In total, Hennington crafted 56 royal glaze wreaths that were placed on the replica’s front door and on 55 windows, all individually handmade. She made an indentation in each brick with a brush before placing the walls in the kiln. The completed structure is 4 feet long, 8 feet high and 3 feet wide at its widest point. The house is completely hollow inside and the only non-edible features are the small decorations on the replica’s lawn and some paper on the inside of the windows.
The replica is held together solely by glaze and no glue is involved in the building process. Hennington used isomalt as a supporter, a sugar substitute that the baker called “bakers’ hot glue.” Some walls of the structure are made of classic, soft gingerbread dough, and some are made of what is known as ‘construction gingerbread’, which does not contain eggs, so the final product is stronger and more study.
After completing the replica, which was built on a piece of plywood, Hennington and her husband, Jackson Fire Department Capt. Kenneth Hennington, laid out the seats of her Nissan Rouge and loaded up the structure. She then drove the replica from her home, with her husband holding it tightly from the front seat, and took it straight to the Governor’s Mansion.
Despite the hard work and long hours, Hennington said she had a great time recreating the gingerbread governor’s mansion.
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“I play with icing and gingerbread,” Hennington said. “My house smells good. I have Christmas music playing… my house was the North Pole. I always wanted to be an architect. I just didn’t know my medium would be gingerbread.”
All decorations will be removed on January 2nd. Hennington said if the governor doesn’t want to keep the gingerbread replica, she will take it back and preserve it with resin.
As for Hunter’s decorations, the Quitman florist said Jan. 2 will be a bittersweet day. Hunter called her decorations a “work of the heart,” emphasizing what an honor the entire experience has been, especially for a small-town florist. Fantasy Cottage is right across from the Quitman Post Office in a town with only two red lights, Hunter joked.
“It takes my breath away sometimes when I think about the magnitude of it, but I’m so grateful and so proud that we were chosen,” Hunter said. “I hope we made Clarke County and Mississippi proud. This was a Christmas to remember.”
Do you have a news tip? Contact Mary Boyte at mboyte@jackson.gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi artists behind the Governor’s Mansion Christmas decorations
