12 trees in 1 house makes a forest of good holiday cheer

THE EXTERIOR of Doug Durbin and Mark Wittman's house in Shorewood on the Sound has a perfectly cheerful Christmas presence about it. Lights in the trees, greenery at the door.

But this is no real indicator of what lies beyond.

Inside is Christmas galore. Trees everywhere. Ornaments from around the world. Collectibles. Handmade. Homemade. Imported. New. Vintage. Nutcrackers. Stockings. Birds. Icicles. Santas. Everything everywhere, three floors deep, styled, gathered, grouped, packaged.

"If you count the trees in the kitchen, there's 12. This is the most we've ever had. And one of the trees is Ditto's tree," says Wittman, and here he means Ditto the dog. "It's kind of sad and pathetic, but that's how it is."

How it is is stunning.

"It's all Doug. He loves all of this. He thinks about it year 'round," Wittman says, heaping credit where credit is most certainly due. People hear about the Wittman-Durbin house. From friends. Co-workers. From friends of friends. They hope to be invited over. The parties can be two and three deep between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wittman's fellow air-traffic controllers come over. And Durbin's human-resources crowd.

Let's take this one ooo-and-aahh at a time.

The Memory Wreath in the entrance hall: Laden with ornaments received as gifts or otherwise special. They are placed clockwise and cataloged in the annually updated laminated book displayed beneath it. "Holiday Memories" also includes a record of the couple's annual Christmas letter.

The Travel Tree: Found in the library bearing, among the globe ornaments, glass ornaments encasing patches from every place the couple has traveled — Turkey, Malta, Amsterdam, Kansas. At the top? A lighted globe.

The Nutcracker Tree: Media room 10 months of the year is introduced as the Nutcracker Room. Nutcrackers stare blindly from every mantel and shelf. They dangle from the tree like mustachioed paratroopers. An army of what must be 100. Little stockings for every member of the Wittman and Durbin family hang from the bookshelves. There are 43.

The Silver Tree: The guest room hosts the aluminum tree that belonged to Durbin's grandmother. The rotating color-wheel light throws extra sparkle onto its vintage ornaments.

The Santa Tree: The grandest of them all, sitting all dressed up in the corner of the living room. All Santas all the time. Beautiful glass sparklers with collectible ornaments by Patricia Breen (handmade in Poland) and Christopher Radko.

The Icicle Tree: In the dining room, around the corner from the grand piano, is a tree of branches found on a hike and arranged in a big pot. From its scraggly flocked fingers dangle dozens of crystal icicles. Flocks of bright red cardinals and white white doves perch everywhere.

The Kitchen Trees: Just off the vintage Christmas-tree cookie jar are three skinny trees standing in baskets: The Orange Tree, the Gingerbread Tree and the Candy Cane Tree.

The Bird Tree: One of Wittman's favorites, it sits in the office between the desk and view of Puget Sound crowned with pheasant feathers.

The Rubber Duckie Tree: Holiday bath-time fun alongside the jetted tub. And topped with what else? An angel rubber duckie.

Ditto's Tree: Sitting at the foot of the master bed upstairs. Never did a canine companion have a lovelier tree. All in brown and turquoise.

And these are just the highlights. "We've got 100 bins," Wittman says. "All labeled and numbered and photographed and filed. Each ornament is shot next to a ruler to verify its size. The hard drive is updated every six months and sent over to my sister's for safekeeping."

Rebecca Teagarden is assistant editor of Pacific Northwest magazine. Benjamin Benschneider is a magazine staff photographer.