Thousands of Ornaments, Countless Memories

Thousands ofOrnaments, CountlessMemories

By Heather N. Russell-Simmons Photography by Walt Roycraft

When Mike and Judy Cooper’s second child was born in 1995, the family moved into their 3,500 square foot, two-story brick home in Lexington’s Copperfield neighborhood. And with them came generations of heirlooms from his family. “A lot of our furniture was built by my grandfather and my great-grandfather,” Cooper explained. Sentimentality is the heartbeat of the home. “Everything has a reason,” said Cooper.

The Cooper home’s extensive holiday decorations are no exception. He credits his mother and grandparents for instilling his love for holidays from a young age. “Growing up, my mom decorated for every holiday,” he said. “For President’s Day, she baked a cherry pie with the shape of an axe cut out of the center.”

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2 Thirty feet of chicken wire shapes and maintains the striking garland above the front door. Fresh cuts of greenery are added throughout the holidays.

3 Pieces from the nutcracker collection are used with garland to decorate the bannister. The folk art Santa, the Santa in a sleigh that belonged to Cooper’s mother in the 1950s and the needlepoint Santa on the entryway table are items from another holiday collection.

Christmas gives Cooper an opportunity to share stories from his childhood and stories he has written with his wife and two children. From his grandfather’s antique horse pull toy that rests under a vintage Christmas tree in the library to a giant inflatable elephant with Santa on the front lawn for the University of Alabama, his children’s alma mater, Cooper collects and exhibits a wide variety of select holiday décor each year. “Nothing is off limits,” he laughed.

“We have a few hundred boxes of Christmas items,” he said. “We keep some in the basement and some in a storage unit.” Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the amount of decorations, Cooper embraces the endless possibilities. “We don’t use everything every year,” he explained. “And nothing is ever set exactly the same year to year because we rotate and mix it up.”

What used to be a family affair has become a one man show. “When my son was in high school and college, he would help fluff the tree branches, and my daughter use to help decorate,” said Cooper. With a chuckle, he added his wife’s role is now to point out where ornaments are needed to fill holes between tree branches and tell him, “Whether or not my efforts look any good.”

“I start decorating around the middle of October,” Cooper said of his schedule. Instead of waiting for the transformation to be completed, the Cooper’s host friends and family to monitor the work in progress. 36 • November/December 2021 • Kentucky Homes & Gardens

Christmas is up by Thanksgiving, but that fall holiday is not forgotten. “We just turn the lights on and make it part of Thanksgiving,” he said before noting that he also collects turkeys. “Even with Christmas trees in the room, we set a Thanksgiving table. It all runs together!” That is, until Valentine’s Day in mid-February, when Cooper packs up the last of his Christmas possessions.

Cooper begins with artificial greenery and trees. He explained that the foundation has to be artificial because of how long the decorations are displayed. The familiar piney fragrance, reminiscent of the Christmas trees his grandfather used to chop from the family farm, is achieved by tucking fresh evergreens and magnolia into wreathes and garland throughout the home.

Cooper uses chicken wire to frame the front door and then builds the entry and window wreathes with artificial and live greenery. Six-foot fiberglass nutcrackers are the first to welcome visitors. Inside, a collection of nutcrackers rests along garland on the stairway banister.

The average tree height in the Cooper house is seven to eight feet. “The 12-foot tree is in the guest room now, up and ready to be decorated,” he said. Once the trees are up and the branches and needles are arranged, Cooper adds lights. “Lots of lights,” he clarified. His preference is to use a majority of white lights, with several strands of colored lights mixed in. “If there are a thousand lights on a tree, maybe 200 of those are color,” he said. The color, he added, “Is what makes the ornaments sparkle.”

As for the ornaments, “The trees are dripping in ornaments,” declared Cooper. A seven and one-half foot tree in the Cooper home may have 600 ornaments or more.

One of the most important trees is what Cooper calls the family tree. Adorned with ornaments made by his children, Hallmark Keepsakes collected through the years, mementos from travels and cherished items from generations before, the family tree belongs in the den for each and every Christmas season.

There are at least another dozen trees in all sizes placed throughout the house. The ocean tree is decorated with ornaments collected from the beach. The kitchen tree is decorated with colorful vegetables. The distillery tree is adorned with bourbon memorabilia. The Disney tree is decorated with souvenirs from trips the family takes each year.

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Introduced to the craft by his wife early in their marriage, Cooper has stitched most of the 250 ornaments on the needlepoint tree. Some are made from canvases he ordered and some are made from original designs he created. “Commander’s Palace is one of our favorite restaurants in New Orleans,” he said of one particular needlepoint ornament.

Cooper remembers visiting his grandparents, who raised sheep. “Baby lambs were brought into the kitchen by the stove to stay warm,” he said, adding that his mother collected sheep ornaments. “We’re putting up the sheep tree this year,” he affirmed. That tree alone will have up to 400 of his mother’s ornaments.

Together, Cooper’s Christmas trees contain thousands of ornaments with countless memories.

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4 Five trees are all decorated with a delicate combination of glass ornaments from Christopher Radko, Patricia Breen and Old World Christmas.

5 “We always go to Burke’s Bakery in Danville during the holidays for the gingerbread men cookies,” said Cooper. 6 Cooper has a collection of glasses to commemorate every Kentucky Derby since 1948. In the Cooper house, birthdays are marked by that year’s Derby winner. Tim Tam won the Derby the year Cooper was born; Venetian Way the year his wife Judy was born. His son, Mitchell, was born the year Sea Hero won. For his daughter, Ann Louise, Thunder Gulch was the winning thoroughbred the year she was born. 7 The Lenox Holiday china belonged to Cooper’s mother-in-law. “We use it every year,” he said. “But we never set everything the same way.” By rotating accent pieces such as chargers and arranging different table scapes, Cooper is able to bring new perspectives to a family heirloom.

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8 A five-foot vintage tree is displayed in the home’s library. “Most of the decorations were given to me by my mom and grandmothers,” Cooper said.

9 Cooper stitched the Tastee-Freez ornament in homage to the restaurant his parents once owned. 10 Cooper’s mother cross-stitched the “Silent Night” sheet music that hangs above the nativity scene in the home’s den. His nativity collection began as a young child. “When I was buying them from the Five and Ten Store in Cynthiana, they were 10 to 20 cents a piece.” 11 Party guests like to spend time in The Cooperage, the downstairs bar and entertainment area.

“The trees are dripping with ornaments.”