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KINGSTON — Santa’s elves are busy this time of year, usually making toys. Some, though, work to deck the halls for the holidays.

At Medical Oncology Associates on Pierce Street, Santa’s elves are Jewish.

“If you have three Jewish women and you give them Christmas, they go crazy,” said Carol Greenwald, considered the chief elf, the driving force and visionary behind the glorious displays.

“This is something we can do for anyone who comes here, either as a patient or as a family member or caregiver or visitor,” she said. “People are here for long stretches of time. The treatments take time. The people who come along with the patients have to wait. Why not make the surroundings pleasant rather than just four walls?”

So, three women decorate the center for each season but Christmas is at the top of everyone’s favorite list. They also put treats out to sweeten the deal.

For the past 14 years, Greenwald, Sally Alinikoff and Missy Saidman have chosen a weekend after Thanksgiving to convert nearly every room in the practice into a gracious decorated space.

“Patients look forward to this,” Greenwald said. “If we’re late putting it together, they remind us about it.”

Greenwald and Alinikoff serve as counselors at the center as well as having their own counseling practice, helping both patients and families navigate the process of cancer. Saidman, Greenwald’s sister-in-law, calls herself “just a volunteer lucky enough to have married into the family.”

The women gather, purchase and find decorations, even have some donated. Each year, they change things slightly to keep the display fresh and new. Sometimes, they find an ornament or two they have forgotten they had.

The three don’t take all the credit, either.

“Matt has been fantastic,” Greenwald said about Matt Faux, who came on about five years ago as facilities manager. “He is the one who climbs the ladders and keeps us organized.”

That organization comes in the form of 20-plus huge plastic totes filled with decorations, flowers and figurines, trees and large pieces that Faux hauls out of a nearby storage building to set up in late November. He reverses the process in January.

“Even the doctors pitch in,” Greenwald said of Dr. David Greenwald and Dr. Bruce Saidman, her husband and brother, respectively.

The women work together as a family to create a home away from home, at least for a few hours, for the patients, the caregivers and the workers who come to the space.

The displays run the gamut of any and every Christmas-y touch that catches the eye in both the obvious and surprise spots throughout the building.

A Christmas tree with lights and ornaments in the foyer greets all comers. Giant bells hang from the ceiling in the waiting room, framed ornaments and wall hangings have places on the walls, holiday flowers peek from corners. A Happy Holidays sign looms from the top of cabinets in the room where nurses draw blood.

There are polar bears, penguins, geese, snowmen and snowflakes on walls. Large ornaments hang from ceilings. There are forests of small trees on top of cabinets. Several pieces that once took their spot on lawns or porches have their places in corners.

A kind of Charlie Brown tree holds a sign, encouraging patients and caregivers to add an ornament in honor of or in memory of a patient.

Wherever there is a counter or a desk or a table, there is a touch of the December holiday.

“And, yes, we do have a menorah, too,” said Saidman.

“Family” runs throughout the practice.

Everyone who works there gets a stocking. Sometimes it’s hanging just outside the person’s office or over a desk. In the chemotherapy room, every nurse’s stocking hangs on the window near the station where he or she works. There are 29 windows.

“We have had to retire some stockings,” Greenwald said. “And, when a person retires, the stocking goes home with them. In fact, we have someone who is coming on staff early next year. And next Christmas, she’ll have a stocking, too.”

That family feeling stretches to the community.

Years ago, Dr. Saidman’s father established the Prescription Assistance Fund to help pay for drugs that counteract the side effects of chemotherapy. Everyone in the practice has pitched in to help raise funds and keep that going. And the fund itself has expanded to help patients with transportation expenses, some medical equipment, home health treatments and a host of extra expenses that arise during the course of treatment.

And the community returns the love.

Patients, both current and former, family members, people from the community constantly bring donations, gifts and food to share, Saidman said.

“This is an independent practice, so we have a lot of leeway to do things that can’t be done in large institutions,” Greenwald said. “Things like this Christmas display. And, it seems to add something special for our patients.”

Carol Greenwald, a licensed professional counselor and one of three main designers/decorators at Medical Oncology Associates, Kingston, points out a hand-crafted swan that greets patients as they enter the facility on Pierce Street.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Medical-Oncology-Christmas-1.jpg.optimal.jpgCarol Greenwald, a licensed professional counselor and one of three main designers/decorators at Medical Oncology Associates, Kingston, points out a hand-crafted swan that greets patients as they enter the facility on Pierce Street. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

Carol Greenwald, right, and her sister-in-law Missy Saidman, right, along with Sally Alinikoff spend an entire weekend every year decorating for Christmas throughout the entire facility at Medical Oncology Associates.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Medical-Oncology-Christmas-2.jpg.optimal.jpgCarol Greenwald, right, and her sister-in-law Missy Saidman, right, along with Sally Alinikoff spend an entire weekend every year decorating for Christmas throughout the entire facility at Medical Oncology Associates. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

This unique holiday art is located in the chemotherapy area of Medical Oncology Associates.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Medical-Oncology-Christmas-3.jpg.optimal.jpgThis unique holiday art is located in the chemotherapy area of Medical Oncology Associates. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

The three women involved in designing and decorating Medical Oncology Associates, Kingston, are, from left, Missy Saidman, Carol Greenwald and Sally Alinikoff.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Medical-Oncology-Christmas-4.jpg.optimal.jpgThe three women involved in designing and decorating Medical Oncology Associates, Kingston, are, from left, Missy Saidman, Carol Greenwald and Sally Alinikoff. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

Carol Greenwald, a licensed professional counselor and one of three main designers/decorators at Medical Oncology Associates, Kingston, points out a hand-crafted swan that greets patients as they enter the facility on Pierce Street. The three women involved in designing and decorating Medical Oncology Associates, Kingston, are, from left, Sally Alinikoff, Missy Saidman and Carol Greenwald.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Medical-Oncology-Christmas-5.jpg.optimal.jpgCarol Greenwald, a licensed professional counselor and one of three main designers/decorators at Medical Oncology Associates, Kingston, points out a hand-crafted swan that greets patients as they enter the facility on Pierce Street. The three women involved in designing and decorating Medical Oncology Associates, Kingston, are, from left, Sally Alinikoff, Missy Saidman and Carol Greenwald. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

By Gina Thackara

For Times Leader