Crazy for Christmas

GREENFIELD PLANTATION — Joe Willis doesn’t have to go far to see the ultimate Christmas light display.

He just steps out his front door.

Willis, a Greenfield Plantation resident, may have the most decorated home in all of East County. Each night, his yard twinkles with lights from more than two-dozen Christmas-inspired creatures and trees. The lights to the left of the driveway are set to music, in part to ensure he doesn’t trip a circuit.

And directly in front of his front door stands a red Christmas tree decorated with bulbs and elves. It’s topped with a green top hat.

“I’m working on my idea for next year,” Willis, 48, said, pointing toward the front windows. “I saw it in Myrtle Beach a few years ago. It’ll look like Santa’s in the house delivering gifts.”

The driver of a car creeping by the home at 10546 Old Grove Circle says it’s the best light display he’s seen yet.

Willis’ love of Christmas began when he was a child, but evolved toward what it is today when he was in college. One year, Willis wasn’t able to return home until a day or two before Christmas because of his work schedule.

“I wanted a tree,” Willis said, adding he wanted it to feel like Christmas.

He purchased a few spinning crystal ornaments. “I thought they were really cool because they had hand-blown glass,” he said.

And every year, he added.

He brought his holiday tradition to East County upon moving here from North Carolina in 2006.

“My mom decorated a lot — two or three trees, a village, and … like this, really,” Willis said. “She comes every Thanksgiving and helps put it out.”

Although Willis spends a week on his outside lights — making sure everything works perfectly before his unofficial neighborhood lighting ceremony the day after Thanksgiving — he spends a full weekend decorating the inside of his house, as well. A few weeks before Thanksgiving, he retrieves the boxes from his attic, parks his car in the driveway and gets organized as he rearranges furniture to make space for decorations and 12 indoor Christmas trees of various sizes. Each is themed — one with snowmen, one with mermaids, one with dolls from the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” movie — and nearly all contain ornaments given by friends or purchased while on trips across the country and world.

“It’s memories,” Willis said. “I remember friends who gave me ornaments. I remember where I got them. It’s cool. It doesn’t grow old.”

The largest tree, placed in the front room, shimmers with blue and white and displays the spinning, hand-blown glass ornaments that birthed Willis’ Christmas inspiration. He saves the 9-foot tree for last because it takes more than six hours to perfect.

He points to an umbrella ornament.

“This was the beginning of it all,” Willis said.

As Willis steps back, the room looks like a Christmas store — a remark Willis commonly hears from visitors to his home.

“Mom did a lot inside; that’s where I get it,” Willis said.

And although Willis loves everything about Christmas and the euphoria it brings, he also likes his regular routine. After a month of twinkly lights and Christmas movies, he doesn’t wait long to pack it up for the next year.

“It’s beautiful,” Willis said, smiling. “But when it’s over, I want my house back.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

Why Christmas?
“Christmas is family,” Joe Willis said. “My mom was one of four. There were 13 grandchildren. That’s what we did. We always went to my grandma’s house for Christmas breakfast. That was the day she shined. Everybody was there. That was always the best day of the year.”