Christmas year-round

Man makes his residence a display case

Adrien Nash shows off the Christmas wonderland that exists year-round in his Hiouchi home. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The Hiouchi resident has been collecting all things Christmas for many years and has transformed one room into what could be any family’s living room the morning of Dec. 25 after the presents have been open.

“Christmas is the greatest thing the human race has ever come up with,” Nash said.

There are unwrapped children’s toys under the tree, a glowing fireplace and Christmas ornaments, figurines that sing holiday songs,  a Nutcracker and dolls covering nearly every inch from the floor to the ceiling.

“It’s been 10 years of Christmas,” Nash said. “It’s the ultimate eye-candy Christmas.”

When he found the fireplace with a fake roaring fire, “I knew what to do with this,” Nash said.

He started to build a year-round Christmas world. It took about two weeks, adding piece by piece, to give it a Victorian feel.

“A Victorian Christmas is the warmest and richest Christmas,” he said.

What he needs is a room twice its size, or just a bigger house to  hold what he’s acquired over the years.

He would like others to see the wonderland he has created in the Christmas room and all around his house.

When Nash moved to his home in Hiouchi 12 years ago, he brought his recently deceased mother’s things from Orange County. She was a collector, and Nash began his own collection to add onto her treasures.

“It was the acquisition of so much stuff,” Nash said.

Some of the Christmas decorations on display in Nash’s home. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

His decorations have come mainly from thrift stores, yard sales and discount stores. Nash buys things “to fit a theme I like, not in just any theme, but one that’s really excellent,” he said.

Nash has come to the point with his collection that would like others to experience his “wonderland.”

Children would enjoy the Pirate Room with play swords, fake skulls, mermaids and paintings of tall ships at seas or the Fantasy Room of collector Barbies, Victorian dolls and little wood houses.

In the library, there’s a menagerie of themes from an African safari of big cats, brass pieces that could be from ancient Greece or Rome, Oriental figurines and tea pots.

Outside, there’s a kitchen that looks pulled from a log cabin next to a seating area that could be in a winery. The deck is ready for a Hawaiian luau with wicker seating, shell chandelier and tiki carvings.

A shallow stream is the setting for a toad pond for gnomes and fairies.

Visitors might forget their own troubles, Nash said, adding, “If this isn’t an escape, what is?”

Nash needed an escape caring for his mother when she suffered from cancer. That’s when he was pushed toward the “fantastic realm,” seeing all the things his mother collected.

He grew up in Los Angeles living within bus distance of Disneyland, which he frequently visited.

He has created a fantasy world in his own home.

“You have to sacrifice for magnificence,” he said.

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