On the outskirts of Fort Worth, in northern Aledo on the way to Weatherford, there’s a house that doesn’t simply acknowledge Christmas — it commits to it. By the time most Texans are still debating whether Thanksgiving has earned the right to pass first, North Texan Christa Hanson has already begun.
“I start in August,” she says.
This is not seasonal creep. It’s a strategy.
That sense of accumulation predates Hanson’s life in the Lone Star State. Hanson and her husband moved to the Aledo area in 2021 after selling their Wyoming ranch. “When we retired and moved to Texas and didn’t have cattle to take care of, my decorating stepped up to another level,” she says. “This is what I have to do now.”
Hanson’s home, large and perched on a hill, has become a private holiday archive, built piece by piece over decades. “We’ve been collecting for the ages,” she says. “We have things in here that belonged to my mother that would be seventy-five years old, all the way down to ornaments from my son and my nephews.”
Each room has a role. The trophy room houses the largest tree, which is fourteen feet tall. “This size tree will only fit in the trophy room,” Hanson explains. The library is restrained by design. “I wanted it to be a little more refined, so the Waterford, Swarovski, and Baccarat crystal ornaments are all in there.”
The fourteen-foot tree comes last, not just because of its scale but because of the logistics it demands. “We actually have a man lift that helps me with the fourteen-foot tree.” During that phase, the lift is stationed in the primary bedroom, turning it into a temporary staging area.
The master bedroom ultimately holds four trees, all dedicated to Christopher Radko’s mouth-blown Polish glass. “I have a very large collection of those,” Hanson says. “And I love all of those.”
Other trees serve as memory catalogs. One is filled with ornaments collected during international travel, from Australia to New Zealand, souvenirs chosen not for luggage efficiency but for permanence. Several trees are devoted entirely to Hallmark. “Some of my very favorites are from when Hallmark started back in the ’70s,” she says. “I have an extensive Hallmark ornament collection.”
One guest bedroom holds a complete Frosty Friends series. “The series has been going for forty-five years,” Hanson says. “And I have every one of those.”
Another tree is entirely handmade, with crocheted satin balls, beaded stars, stockings, and candy canes created by her grandmother. “She crocheted around the satin balls,” Hanson explains. “Those are some of my very favorites.”
If the house has a thesis statement, it stands in the foyer. What began thirty-two years ago as a cowboy tree — pine cones, antlers, old boots — has evolved into a towering peppermint display, still threaded with Western ornaments. The inspiration came from an episode of “Little House on the Prairie.”
Hanson recalls the character of Mr. Edwards on the show, bringing the girls their presents, a tin cup and a peppermint stick. “And that to me just signifies how meaningful it was to them,” Hanson says of the iconic show. “A peppermint stick is Christmas, and a peppermint stick is Western and cowboy.”
Hanson does nearly all of the decorating herself. Although her husband and friends help with assembly and hauling. For the outside of the house, Hanson hires Lit AF Lighting, giving her more time to curate and decorate the many rooms that make up her festive home.
“I love touching every single ornament when I take it out and put it on a tree,” she says. “And then also when I put it away.”
Putting it away is as deliberate as setting it out. “All of my glass ornaments get wrapped in tissue paper individually,” Hanson says. Her basement — yes, Hanson has a basement — operates according to what she calls “an absolute science.” “Last things up are the first things to put away. By the end of February, everything is put away.”
Despite the scale, Hanson resists comparison. “There is no competing,” she says. “There is no ugly Christmas. Whatever moves you, even if it’s only five ornaments, it is fantastic.”
Her advice is both technical and philosophical. “I always do the topper of the tree first so I know how much room I have underneath. Put the bigger ornaments on first, some deeper in the tree. Finish with the smaller ones — that’s like snow falling on the branches.”
The house is also meant to be used. Hanson hosts an annual Christmas tea for women in her HOA, cooks elaborate holiday meals, and bakes relentlessly. “I’ve made probably sixty dozen cookies,” she says. “Homemade caramel, homemade toffee.” She even makes her own bows. “There are no raw edges on my wrapping paper when I wrap,” she says. “Yes, I’m obsessive, but I love it.”
Asked what she hopes all of it adds up to, Hanson doesn’t frame it as spectacle or reputation. She frames it as feeling.
“I would like to be known as the person who went all out for Christmas and brought joy and love to my family, to make them feel special, to have it be a magical experience every year.”