Gail and Philip Crawford really like Christmas.

In fact, the couple - who are the parents of Wendy, Casey and the late James Wingo - like Christmas so much that their home on Planters Ridge Drive is decorated from “top to bottom, inside and out with Christmas stuff,” Gail Crawford said.

“The pictures come off the wall and the Christmas art goes up, the regular bed linen goes off and the special Christmas linen goes on. The curtains get changed,” she said.

Their home has four bedrooms, three baths, a living area, dining room, kitchen and a downstairs apartment area with a bathroom, den, kitchen and bedroom.

“It’s all decorated,” she said.

And the holiday items, including 55 Christmas cookie jars displayed in the kitchen and more than 20 nativities lining the shelves in his home office, get unpacked from the multitude of boxes and cartons stored in the attic.

“I usually start decorating around October,” she said. “My nephews will come over and help Philip carry the boxes down. Used to, we would just bring everything down at once and pile everything in my garage. My whole garage would be stacked. I told Philip that we just couldn’t do that anymore because it was kind of overwhelming for me.”

Crawford takes one room at a time.

“It keeps me busy. After James’ death, doing this - the decorating - helped me with the loss, as it keeps me focused and occupied,” she said.

The couples’ Christmas decor has come from a wide variety of sources over the years.

“We just collect things from everywhere we go. A lot of our stuff has come from the Christmas stores in Dawson, Pigeon Forge and even Kirkland’s,” she said.

How much do they have?

“Four or maybe five Christmas trees, and let me see, I would have to walk around and count, but we have, oh, seven tabletop trees,” she said. “Then there are the nutcrackers at the stairs. We call that Nutcracker Lane.”

For several years, the couple held an open house for the community, but illnesses in the family, among other things, kept them from doing so this year. Yet they still decorated.

“Our grandchildren love coming to Christmas at the house,” she said.

The Crawfords’ Christmas house will stay decorated, “until the second week of January probably. It will take a good month to get everything packed back up, and I will just have to do it a room at a time.”

But Gail Crawford doesn’t mind.

“Christmas is for celebrating Jesus’ birth, but also it is a time for celebrating love and family,” she said.

“And this is what doing all this decorating is about for us … sharing love, celebrating family. I hope that all my friends and neighbors will be able to experience that and remember to love one another.”

Contact Becky Holland at bholland@lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 229.