JEFFERSON, Wis. - You wouldn’t know it from the outside, but inside one Jefferson home Christmas is everywhere you look.
“We have about 27 or 28 trees throughout the house,” Kristin Kakuschke, Jefferson, said.
It’s not the trees that Kristin and Greg Beck find special, rather the ornaments they display.
“I would say we’ve collected 400-ish in the last few years, each of those years,” Kristin said.
Her collection spans two decades, starting in 1998 when a coworker gave her an ornament as a gift. It’s grown significantly since then. The couple now displays about 3,000 ornaments in their home.
Greg took up the hobby a few years later when Hallmark, who makes the majority of the couple’s ornaments, started making ones that struck his interest.
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Each tree has a theme and each ornament has a story. But Kristin’s favorite is the “Santa tree.” It’s festooned with 500 different Santas.
“The favorite one on the tree is this series, this blue Santa and these Victorian Santas,” Krisin said.
Greg’s favorite tree is trimmed from a galaxy far, far away. The tree is even topped with a star, a Death Star that is.
“Being a geek, I like the Star Wars and Star Trek tee,” he said.
The couple takes a week of vacation in order to decorate each tree, which they do one-by-one. The ornaments are special, the trees are unique, but it’s the time spent creating their Christmas wonderland that Greg and Kristin enjoy the most.
“What makes them special, for me, is it’s something the two of us can do together,” Greg said.
The couple hosts an open house each year for anyone who wants to check out their display. This year, they had about 40 people show up.
