On the outskirts of Fort Worth, in northern Aledo on the way to Weatherford, there\u2019s a house that doesn\u2019t simply acknowledge Christmas \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI start in August,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
This is not seasonal creep. It\u2019s a strategy.<\/p>\n
That sense of accumulation predates Hanson\u2019s life in the Lone Star State. Hanson and her husband moved to the Aledo area in 2021 after selling their Wyoming ranch. \u201cWhen we retired and moved to Texas and didn\u2019t have cattle to take care of, my decorating stepped up to another level,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is what I have to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanson\u2019s home, large and perched on a hill, has become a private holiday archive, built piece by piece over decades. \u201cWe\u2019ve been collecting for the ages,\u201d she says. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each room has a role. The trophy room houses the largest tree, which is fourteen feet tall. \u201cThis size tree will only fit in the trophy room,\u201d Hanson explains. The library is restrained by design. \u201cI wanted it to be a little more refined, so the Waterford, Swarovski, and Baccarat crystal ornaments are all in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fourteen-foot tree comes last, not just because of its scale but because of the logistics it demands. \u201cWe actually have a man lift that helps me with the fourteen-foot tree.\u201d During that phase, the lift is stationed in the primary bedroom, turning it into a temporary staging area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The master bedroom ultimately holds four trees, all dedicated to Christopher Radko\u2019s mouth-blown Polish glass. \u201cI have a very large collection of those,\u201d Hanson says. \u201cAnd I love all of those.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. \u201cSome of my very favorites are from when Hallmark started back in the \u201970s,\u201d she says. \u201cI have an extensive Hallmark ornament collection.\u201d<\/p>\n
One guest bedroom holds a complete Frosty Friends series. \u201cThe series has been going for forty-five years,\u201d Hanson says. \u201cAnd I have every one of those.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another tree is entirely handmade, with crocheted satin balls, beaded stars, stockings, and candy canes created by her grandmother. \u201cShe crocheted around the satin balls,\u201d Hanson explains. \u201cThose are some of my very favorites.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the house has a thesis statement, it stands in the foyer. What began thirty-two years ago as a cowboy tree \u2014 pine cones, antlers, old boots \u2014 has evolved into a towering peppermint display, still threaded with Western ornaments. The inspiration came from an episode of \u201cLittle House on the Prairie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanson recalls the character of Mr. Edwards on the show, bringing the girls their presents, a tin cup and a peppermint stick. \u201cAnd that to me just signifies how meaningful it was to them,\u201d Hanson says of the iconic show. \u201cA peppermint stick is Christmas, and a peppermint stick is Western and cowboy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love touching every single ornament when I take it out and put it on a tree,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then also when I put it away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putting it away is as deliberate as setting it out. \u201cAll of my glass ornaments get wrapped in tissue paper individually,\u201d Hanson says. Her basement \u2014 yes, Hanson has a basement \u2014 operates according to what she calls \u201can absolute science.\u201d \u201cLast things up are the first things to put away. By the end of February, everything is put away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the scale, Hanson resists comparison. \u201cThere is no competing,\u201d she says. \u201cThere is no ugly Christmas. Whatever moves you, even if it\u2019s only five ornaments, it is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her advice is both technical and philosophical. \u201cI 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 \u2014 that\u2019s like snow falling on the branches.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. \u201cI\u2019ve made probably sixty dozen cookies,\u201d she says. \u201cHomemade caramel, homemade toffee.\u201d She even makes her own bows. \u201cThere are no raw edges on my wrapping paper when I wrap,\u201d she says. \u201cYes, I\u2019m obsessive, but I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what she hopes all of it adds up to, Hanson doesn\u2019t frame it as spectacle or reputation. She frames it as feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the outskirts of Fort Worth, in northern Aledo on the way to Weatherford, there\u2019s a house that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34383,889,7748,893,7746,28372,320,116,118,117,28359,1012,92],"class_list":["post-98049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-aledo","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-decor","tag-christmas-lights","tag-christmas-tree","tag-food-and-drink","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-santa-claus","tag-stephen-montoya","tag-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}