Crazy for Christmas
A holiday tour home features Coca-Cola collectibles and enough ornaments to deck out a Macy's.
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published December 9, 2005
LITHIA - Buzz and Jackie Nielsen can't get enough of Christmas.
They can't get enough of life, either, which might explain their unapologetic zeal for all things red, green and jolly.
Their cozy FishHawk Trails house stands as a shrine to the season, a suburban winter wonderland replete with miniature ice skaters gliding across a plank over the master bath, a guest room twinkling with thousands of holiday Coca-Cola collectibles, and enough ornaments to deck out an entire Macy's department store.
The couple, both in their 50s, hang their entire annual holiday extravaganza themselves, a labor-intensive process that often begins after Labor Day and ends about Thanksgiving.
Their passion for Christmas is something they relish together and have no plans to slow down any time soon.
"We've been married 30 years and we're both collectors," explains Jackie, 52, a homemaker, who moved to Brandon with her husband four years ago from East Hampton, Conn. "This is truly our labor of love, something we both do together, side by side."
Buzz Nielsen, 59, who is retired from the family business, puts it this way: "I love life and feel that it's short. So you might as well have as much fun as you can. People ask me: "When are you going to grow up?' and I say, "Just before you shovel the ground over me.' "
The Nielsens' four-bedroom, 31/2-bath home that Jackie describes as "Florida style" was prominently featured Saturday on the 2005 Holiday Home Tour sponsored by the General Federation of Woman's Clubs Brandon Service League.
Visitors took in the enthusiastic Christmas display with glee, pausing to admire the Coca-Cola Christmas village, the Santa airships and blimps dangling overhead, and the hundreds of elfish Christmas dolls climbing clocks, cabinets and ceiling trays.
Buzz Nielsen, who is chairman-elect of the National Corvette Museum, parked two sweet Corvettes in front of the house, a blue 2004 commemorative edition 206, and a white 1953 commemorative edition outfitted with a new chassis and an old body. (Oh, Santa baby!)
The popular tour, now in its 13th year, generally pulls hundreds of visitors from the Brandon area, some from as far away as Sun City Center. But this year's event, possibly buoyed by the Nielsens' well-known enthusiasm for collecting everything from holiday dolls to Coke ephemera to Corvettes, drew an estimated 800 visitors who thronged to the three featured homes.
"It's unbelievable - the number of years we've been doing this and how it has really become a tradition in Brandon," says Zana Turner, chairman of the holiday home tour. "We have entire families, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, who have been coming year after year. A lot of them go to lunch and shopping afterwards."
The crowd was so thick at the Nielsens' (where volunteers sold donated holiday centerpieces, stockings and ornaments for 50 cents a box) that everyone jostled elbows and chatted as if they were at a big cocktail party. Christmas cardigans were the fashion de rigueur, as were dangly earrings resembling tree bulbs and ornaments.
"This house is gorgeous - I've got to have a kitchen like that!" said Diane Walker of Temple Terrace, her silver earrings shaped like Christmas lights swaying. "I love the cabinets and island and warm wood. And, oh, yes, all the old-fashioned decorations."
Linda Cameron, 57, of Seffner agreed: "The Coke room is awesome, the whole nostalgic feeling of it. It's definitely something from my generation."
Jackie Nielsen points out, even if they hadn't been asked to open up their home for the Christmas tour, they would have decked the halls just as enthusiastically.
"This house would have been decorated this way whether or not we were on the house tour - it's just not a big deal," she says with a laugh. "Some people play golf or go to baseball games. This is what we do for fun."
David and Ella Chadwell, who also opened their home in the Citrus Wood development of Valrico to the tour, decorated with holiday decor that, though lush, was a bit more traditional."I was totally inspired by the movie Out of Africa," Ella Chadwell explained, her blond hair pulled into a chignon, a little like Meryl Streep, her fringed vintage velvet jacket perfectly complementing her decorations, many of which stay up all year.
The house was decorated with bamboo furniture, a leopard rug - even monkeys twined into the greenery. Visitors paused to admire the mantle swags and table settings that Ella designed herself.
The tour has gotten so popular that organizers say they may increase the number of houses on display from three to five. Recommendations from the community typically pour in a year in advance.
The $10 tickets - reasonable on the home tour circuit - were sold through three Brandon retailers and by the group's 80 members, most of whom volunteered as tour hostesses - serving coffee, cider and baked goods - and donated Christmas decorations.
Every dollar raised, Turner says, goes to Brandon charities, including high school arts programs and camps for children with cancer.