You won't believe how many Christmas trees these folks have. Fir real

Dec. 18, 2025

By Jessica Guynn

From the sweet aroma of baked cookies to the festive family gatherings, Shawn Hundertmark’s mom always put the merry in Christmas. 

When she died 20 years ago, Hundertmark dedicated his yearly celebrations to her, turning on the Christmas lights on her birthday in early December and immersing himself in the familiar traditions she left for him. 

“I try to do everything she did when we were growing up,” Hundertmark, 49, said. 

With one embellishment. While his family only had one tree, he has 15 – 12 indoors and three on the porch.

The Pennsylvania transplant who used to chop down his trees at Christmastime works as a chef at a Walt Disney World restaurant. His first year in Florida, he bought a fresh-cut tree only to have the air conditioning dry it out. Now he's content with a glittering array of artificial trees instead.

In the family room of his 2,100-square-foot home is a festive 12-foot tree decked out with a hodgepodge of ornaments. Flanking the hutch in the dining room are red-and-gold-themed evergreens with ornaments inherited from his grandmother. 

The formal living room is home to his Disney tree, while his office has a Star Wars tree painted black. He even has a tree in the kitchen and in each of the two bathrooms. 

“I love Christmas,” Hundertmark said. “I always said to myself, ‘I want to have a tree in every room.’”

From Kim Kardashian to the ‘Crazy Tree Lady’

For a growing number of households, one tree just isn’t enough. They keep “accidentally” acquiring more. 

“We’ve accidentally got an 8ft, a 7ft, a 6ft, a 5ft 6in, two 5ft and a few small ones,” one person commented on Facebook. “Still think there is room for more.”

“I have 13 trees this year,” another person said. “My husband asked me if I bought another tree and I told him no because I had purchased three. Technically … not a lie!”

“Lost count,” commented a third.

For some, this multi-tree phenomenon takes on Rockefeller Center proportions.

A Georgia woman, Shasta Rodgers, calls herself the “Crazy Tree Lady” for filling her home with dozens of trees. In December, a family in Germany set a new record with 621 decorated trees in one home. 

Known as the “Christmas Tree Lady of Palm Beach Gardens,” Diane Tice has trees on kitchen counters, pool tables, in bath tubs, even on top of the washing machine in her Florida home to create her own “winter wonderland.” This year she “downsized” from 63 to 60. 

Thirteen years ago, Barbara Hardesty decorated her Columbus, Ohio, home with 100 Christmas trees to brighten her outlook after being diagnosed with cancer. Now cancer-free, she gives public tours of her forest of 777 trees (even her “toilet-trees” in the bathroom).

“But why does someone need that many Christmas trees in their house?” one person commented on Kim Kardashian's Instagram-perfect "winter wonderland" with dozens – perhaps hundreds – snow-flocked Tanenbaums.

Multi-tree households are growing

Most people don’t have the money, space or time to create holiday cheer on such a scale, but multi-tree households are becoming more common, with 20% of those displaying a Christmas tree this year planning on more than one, according to a YouGov survey.

The National Tree Company reports the average household has 1.5 to 1.7 Christmas trees. 

It often begins with a second smaller tree for the kids, according to Rick Dungey, executive director of the National Christmas Tree Association. Data shows that between 15% and 20% of households buying a live tree pick up more than one, Dungey said. 

Mac Harman, founder and CEO of Balsam Hill, which sells hundreds of thousands of artificial trees each year, says almost half his customers have two or more Christmas trees. 

Sometimes they want a formal showstopper tree to pair with a more personal, eclectic one to stow family mementos, like kids’ ornaments made from construction paper and dry macaroni or glitter and beads. 

Then there are the people who make the holiday season last longer by putting up an artificial tree in November and a farm-cut tree in December. 

Larger homes have influenced the trend, as have Instagram and TikTok, which offer a splashy showcase for holiday sparkle, such as themed trees in every room or clusters of trees for dramatic effect. 

Tumultuous world events also play a role, according to Harman. His company’s Christmas tree sales soared in Australia after two gunmen attacked a Hanukkah event at Sydney's Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in the country's worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years.

“Whether you’re Muslim or Hindu or Jewish or Christian or Catholic or whatever, the warm glow of the lights and the nostalgic decorations make people feel safe and happy,” Harman said. “We see this over and over again. When times are difficult or tough or stressful or sad, people invest in more Christmas decor because it brings joy.”

Christmas trees at heart of holiday cheer

Christi Peterson says she always wants to be in the room with the Christmas tree. So she got five for her Orlando, Florida, home.

Moving to the South from Indiana, Peterson left behind the cold and snow, but not the midwestern wintry spirit. She puts up one tree each day after her birthday in early November as a gift to herself.

Her 15-year-old son has a Chicago Bulls-themed tree in his bedroom. A sixth “cowboy chic”-themed tree is in their second home in Fort Myers, where her husband lives during the work week.

“I’ve always thought that one tree, it can’t hold all of my Christmas joy,” said Peterson, 44, who works for an aviation company. “Having extra Christmas trees makes it feel a little bit more like Christmas.”

During a study at the University of Denmark in 2015, 20 people were shown images with either a Christmas or non-Christmas theme while they were monitored by a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine that displays an increase or decrease in brain activity. 

When looking at Christmas images, “that region lit up like … well, a Christmas tree,” Olly Robertson, a doctoral researcher in psychology at Keele University, wrote in The Conversation. 

“Every time we encounter items or ideas that we relate to over Christmas because of our past, our brains create the emotion of Christmas cheer,” Robertson said. 

At the heart of the Christmas cheer is the tree – “a temporary landmark of time that helps people make meaning by slowing attention, encouraging presence, and creating a psychological break from everyday demands,” said Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center.

Christmas trees connect us to beloved family traditions or to meaningful religious or spiritual rituals, recalling feelings of childlike joy and wonder and boosting well-being, psychologists say. The warm glow of the lights, especially in dark winter months, calms the nervous system and releases feel-good brain chemicals. Ornaments express not only who we are but who we belong to and allow us to savor or relive special moments, according to Rutledge.

“Decorating and gathering around [the Christmas tree] layers memories year after year, turning the tree into a memory scaffold for personal and family history and triggering reflection and memory sharing," she said. "Each year, new experiences get added onto old ones.” 

Having multiple trees is like having a visual playlist “each with a different emotional or social function,” she said. 

What's more, greenery and organic shapes “reduce stress and signal safety and continuity when the environment feels cold and uncertain,” Rutledge said. “Humans have a preference for natural elements, especially greenery, based on an evolutionary response to nature.”

‘A tree in every room’ 

Donna Kutil Ross, who runs a Cape Cod garden center with her brother, has been bringing nature indoors every winter for decades. 

“We sell Christmas,” said Ross, 51. “I grew up selling trees, unloading trees and loving trees.”

Ross always had a Christmas tree in her own home. When her daughter was born 10 years ago, she started getting two. But as the family collected more ornaments, there were not enough trees to hold them. 

So now Ross has eight trees, including a 9-foot Fraser fir in the living room, a sports and leisure-themed tree on the three-season porch, a seashore-themed tree in the spare room and a “grammys” tree with ornaments from grandmothers on both sides of the family. 

She’s noticed her customers at the Scenic Roots Garden Center in Sandwich, Massachusetts, often pick up two or three. 

“I just love Christmas and I just love what trees are with the ornaments on them,” Ross said. “They are your memories and they are your family and they are your joy. To me, they just fill the home with love.”