The decorations and lights have been put up in the large clapboard “colonial” homes and fir trees are for sale next to the fire station.
But in the household of Nicole and Ian Hockley, the signs of the festive season are limited to the bedroom of their 10-year-old son Jake where he has his own tree and ornaments.
“It’s just too soon for us to be celebrating,” said Mrs Hockley. “Maybe next year we’ll be ready, maybe that will be another step for us. Jake wanted a tree so we’ve let him decorate his room, but Ian and I are not at that stage yet.”
For the ornaments on the Hockley family tree, in England for 20 years and then for just one Christmas in America, always bore their names. First it was Nicole and Ian; then Nicole, Ian and Jake; and finally, for six short years, Nicole, Ian, Jake and Dylan.
It was only six short years because Sunday is the second anniversary of Dylan’s death, one of 20 young children and six teaching staff murdered by a deranged gunman at Sandy Hook elementary school. Adam Lanza’s first victim was his mother Nancy; the last death that day was his own as he turned his gun on himself.
