Fly Celebration Flags Any Time Of The Year
When Renee Newell hung a green flag decorated with falling leaves in front of her Modesto home last October, a neighbor stopped and asked, “What does that mean?”
“It’s autumn,” she replied.
No hidden meaning there. The change of the seasons was reason enough to fly a flag.
Devotees as well as those who make and sell the decorative banners say the celebration flags are catching on. Sales are up, and neighborhoods are indeed looking a little livelier.
Jeff Shuford, sales manager at Windsport, the Austin-based manufacturer of wind socks and celebration flags, saw last year’s sales rise more than 30 percent from 1993. The sales are fueled at least in part by flag lovers going back for more. It’s not unusual for one flag to lead to another.
For Newell, the falling leaves were just the beginning. There was a goldwinged angel for Christmas, red and pink hearts for Valentine’s Day, and a leprechaun’s hat and shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day. Springtime brought bunnies and Holy Week a cross. Other collectors include Allan and Nancy Lee of Modesto. They started a couple of years ago when they got a Christmas flag from their daughter. More followed from other family members. A cardboard box in the garage now holds 13. A fourteenth flag showing California poppies against a background of blue was recently flying in front of their home.
Their flag-inspired joie de vivre has apparently spread down the street. A couple of blocks from the Lees, Sandra and Felix Munoz were flying a southwestern-style flag with a cactus and sombrero. So far, it’s the only one they have, but they already have their sights set on more.At Design House, a decorating store and design firm in Oakdale, interior designer Marianne Ward offered another reason to collect and fly celebration flags. One customer, she said, purchased a set of flags depicting a variety of landscapes reflecting the sites of their vacation homes.
“They use them as a signal to their neighbors,” Ward said. “If it’s a beach scene, they’re at the beach.”
Flying decorative banners and flags is certainly nothing new, but the birthplace of the modern celebration flag seems to be the home of Millie Jones in Richmond, Va. As she tells the story, Jones made a flag nearly 25 years ago to spruce up a house she was renovating. When her son, Jonathan, was born four years later in 1975, a new flag announced, “It’s a Boy!”
After a little bit of attention from the media, Jones received a flurry of phone calls from people wanting banners of their own. Today, Jones runs Festival Flags Unlimited, a mailorder company that specializes in custom designs and limited runs of celebration flags, sewn in her own Richmond showroom.
At the top end, Festival Flags will create a complete custom design. One customer in Grosse Pointe, Mich., Jones said, had a flag made for her husband’s 80th birthday that depicted scenes from his life. The $650 banner now hangs inside the couple’s home.
Once the exclusive domain of custom designers and handseamstresses, celebration flags have graduated from cottage industry to mass production, making them more affordable and more prevalent. Inexpensive flags are now even available at garden and discount stores.