In Woodbury, A Home For The Holidays

The simple lights and small display outside a home on the 3400 block of Commonwealth Avenue in Woodbury give no indication of the winter wonderland inside.

Brian Warford and Michael Johnson spent 125 hours setting up Christmas ornaments from the 35-plus bins they store in the basement. It’s a yearly tradition, and it takes a lot of work.

Yet Warford said, “I’m a minimalist."

Warford actually grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness, though Johnson’s mother is big on holiday decorations.

“I inherited the gene from her,” Johnson said.

They try to create vignettes in each section of the home, “so everywhere you look there’s a story to tell,” Warford said.

They start getting ready in October and the house goes “live” the day after Thanksgiving each year. They also throw an annual holiday party for friends who want to come over and see what’s new.

“They are blown away by the amount of stuff and how it looks,” Johnson said. “And I like to show it off.”

It’s become kind of a joke among his friends. “They think I’m nuts,” Johnson said.

It’s a lot of work getting the dozens of Santa figurines and lights and Department 56 “Dickens village” set up each year. There are also three Christmas trees in the house. It can be stressful, Warford said.

“It gets a very overwhelming, especially when we’re first bringing everything out,” he said.

For the first time this year, they got assistance from , which sent over workers to help set things up. When they first came in, Warford recalled, the workers said: “It’s like being in a warehouse.”

Johnson is an Army veteran, and some of the ornaments he picked up during his time in Germany. A handful of other items were made by family members.

They keep tweaking things as the season goes along. “We’ve very fussy,” Warford said.

Johnson said he’s always on the lookout for new things, especially Santa figurines.

“They shiny objects are what gets to me,” he said. “But I’m very traditional about it. No off-color stuff. The reds, the greens. The silver and the gold.”

While the house is decked out to the nines, neither will spend Christmas in Woodbury—Warford is heading back home to Michigan and Johnson will spend the holidays with his family in Illinois.

There is a limit to the decorations.

“I’m trying to scale back on things, because really, we’re running out of space,” Warford said.