I’ve heard of old ladies with dozens of cats in their house but not dozens of Christmas trees.
With 42 Christmas trees, she’s an “ornament junkie
Cindy Johnson never decorates her Lyndon Township home for Halloween or Valentine’s Day or Easter.
How could she? During that time span, she’s busy putting up or taking down Christmas decorations. She decks the halls with 42 trees, as well as a large collection of other decorations, in what amounts to a six-month challenge.
“It just got out of control,” admits Johnson, who works as an IT operations supervisor at the Borders Group corporate office in Ann Arbor. “I’m an ornament addict, a Christmas junkie.”
She already owns 2,000 Hallmark ornaments and 500 “generic” ornaments, but knows that when the after-Christmas half-off sale begins, she’ll be hitting Dayspring Gifts in downtown Chelsea for about 100 more.
“They know me by name in there,” she said.
She started buying dated ornaments in 1975. When she ran out of room on the tree for more of those, she decided to buy another tree, then another and another. (Who says a house can have only one tree?) People have given her their old trees, and she calls these cast-offs her Charlie Brown trees.
A sentimental collector who remembers where she got every ornament, she loves the thrill of the hunt – and eBay has become her hunting ground. Each ornament is carefully wrapped in its own box, which is why the process is so time-consuming.
Asked to choose a favorite ornament, she said that would be akin to choosing a favorite child. But it’s easy to name the ornament she covets the most – the rare 1982 Hallmark Frosty Friends ornament, which is heavily bidded on eBay and over her budget.
Each room of the small ranch – except for one of the two bathrooms – is heavily decorated, including the basement.
“I have a very understanding husband,” she said. “But deep down, I think he loves it just as much as I do.”
Her largest tree takes prominence in the family room, and is 7.5 feet high. The smallest – and the one she’s not sure she should even count except that she does decorate it with its own teeny ornaments – is 6 inches. Most of the smaller ones are 2 feet high. Each tree has a theme, which could be Winnie-the-Pooh or romance or cartoon characters.
“It’s getting pretty hard after 42 trees to make them all different,” she says.
Despite the fact that she’s crazy for all things Christmas, Johnson is not sad to start packing up after New Year’s Day. By then, the dog and four cats have knocked down a few things.
“Some people tell stories about their kids,” she says. “I talk about my trees. They all think I’mhttps://edit-blog.advance.net/mt-static/images/formatting-icons/link.gif crazy.”
