The one place it’s definitely “snowing” in Sahuarita is in the master bathroom of Jerri and Doyle Fleck’s home.
A Christmas tree displayed atop their covered bathtub shoots tiny Styrofoam balls — “snow” — from the top that tumble down the branches and collect in a basin at the base of the tree. It’s flanked by two smaller trees, one covered in penguin ornaments, the other in Eskimo ornaments.
The trees are among 100 intricately decorated trees of various sizes displayed in the couple’s 2,600-square-foot home.
The smallest is a 3-inch tree made of glass Jerri’s sister bought in Europe.
Ornaments of Disney characters hang from almost every branch of a 9-foot tree, the tallest in the home.
About 28 of the trees stand 6 feet or taller.
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There are pre-lit trees, fiber-optic trees, skinny trees, wide trees, white trees, green trees, a red tree and one made of feathers.
Each tree has its own theme and for the couple months they are up each year, the trees are home to the thousands of Hallmark ornaments the couple has collected over four decades.
“It started when my son Scott was born in ’74,” Jerri, 61, said. “Someone gave me an ornament as a shower gift and said if you buy him an ornament every year then when he’s grown he’ll have his own set of ornaments for his own tree, but it just kind of grew and grew and the more I got, the more addicted I was.”
The “goody, goody gum drop tree” in the kitchen features all manner of sweets, baked goods and kitchen utensil ornaments. A red tree in the craft room is dotted with snowmen ornaments, some caroling, some playing musical instruments, and all have friendly, frozen smiles. In the master bedroom, the “critter tree” has all sorts of woodland creatures, including an owl perched at the very top. The “Bugs Bunny and friends” tree showcases all the beloved animated Looney Tunes characters. Another tree has ornaments with photos of the couple’s children and grandchildren through the years.
“You know, as you get older your job and your pay scale and stuff they go up and so you can buy a little bit more,” Doyle said of the growing collection.
A small tree in an upstairs sitting area has firefighter-related ornaments — Doyle, 66, retired from the Tucson Fire Department after a 33-year career.
The couple, who have been married for 40 years, still display the set of ornaments from their first Christmas tree. They are handmade ornaments in the shapes of balls and bells decorated with pins, beads and sequins.
Jerri inventories the Hallmark ornaments she’s purchased new, in the box using a computer program. She has 5,200 of those, and many more that were bought loose or are a different brand.
Christmas planning starts early in the Fleck home.
The newest Hallmark catalog arrives in March or April for its Keepsake Ornament Club members. “I start my list and look at it over and over and over,” Jerri said.
This year, the decorating started in August.
Doyle is responsible for taking all the trees and decorations from storage. He assembles the trees and positions them in every room of the house, including the garage, laundry room, bedrooms and bathrooms.
The couple’s teenage sons help install small button batteries that make ornaments come to life with Christmas songs, different sounds and moving parts. The batteries have to be taken out of the ornaments every year before they’re put away, so they don’t corrode, the Flecks explain. And they go through so many batteries, they buy them in bulk on eBay.
The careful hanging of the thousands of ornaments is Jerri’s job.
The couple also moves furniture out of certain rooms to make space for the trees.
The Flecks also collect Department 56 miniature porcelain village scenes. One of Doyle Fleck’s favorite hobbies is to create Styrofoam displays for the miniatures.
Once the holidays are over, everything comes down.
“It seems so bare when it all goes away,” Jerri Fleck said. “Bare and boring.”
