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Tannenbaum times 50 Photo by Jim Craven Lynn Griffith usually spends two days decorating this 9-foot Christmas tree, one of about 50 on display in her home. Decorating them all takes two weeks or so. Prospect couple has a houseful of Christmas trees By CHRIS BRISTOL PROSPECT -- Most people make do with one Christmas tree per house. Lynn Griffith has five -- in her master bathroom. Of course, they aren't big trees. And they're not real. "They don't even light up," she says, sounding more apologetic than defensive. But they are decorated, as are most of the 50 or so trees Lynn proudly displays throughout the spacious four-bedroom house she shares with her husband, Jim, and hundreds of stuffed teddy bears on rural Mill Creek Drive. That's right -- fifty. Not fifteen. Five-oh. To say Lynn Griffith has a lot of Christmas trees is like saying Santa has a lot of gifts to deliver once a year. "I guess I'm a tree-a-holic," she says with a laugh. "Maybe it's a little nutty, but I like it." She has six big ones that stand 7 feet or more, but most of her Tannenbaums are tiny -- no bigger than knee or waist high. Not one room is treeless, not even the kitchen. She has dozens of extension cords, just to power the lights, which add about $80 to her January electric bill each year. And, in case you were wondering, all her trees are artificial. "I used to get real ones," she explains, "but then I started feeling really guilty about killing so many trees." The obvious question here is Why? Is it some childhood trauma thing, because she grew up in Hawaii? They don't have proper Christmas trees there, do they? "Actually, they do," she says. "I don't know what you call them, but talk about some big pine cones! My dad worked for the state forestry department, and we used to cut one down every year on Mauna Kea, which is the biggest mountain in the world, bigger than Mount Everest, if you count the part under the sea." OK. "I just love Christmas," she explains. "It brings out the good in people." It usually takes two weeks to decorate so many trees, which includes two full days of ladder work on the big 9-footer in the foyer, next to the enormous moose head over the hallway. She starts just before Thanksgiving. "I don't do every holiday," she adds, "just Christmas and Easter." Lynn first started really decorating in 1974, when she made so many cloth-animal ornaments and gingham-checked ribbons that she didn't have any room left over for regular ornaments. Today, she still devotes all her homemade ornaments to one of the big trees in the living room. "It's my scrap tree, is what it is," she says. Then there's the kitty tree (nothing but cat ornaments) and the teddy bear tree and the yard sale tree. Not all the trees have a theme, but you can't help but notice that all the decorations on the little tree in the kitchen are tiny copper utensils. So what does her husband think of all this? "She tells me to get out of her way, and that's fine by me," shrugs Jim, a semi-retired builder from Medford who finds safe haven in his workshop. "I do my thing, let her do her thing." Lynn takes it all down in January, carefully packing it all away in marked crates and boxes. The garage becomes a tree lot, the closets nothing but storage. She has more than 20 extension cords. For Lynn, the New Year always gets off to a bittersweet start. This is a woman, after all, who refers to her trees as "them." "I put them all away, and it's like saying goodbye to old friends," she admits. "Then again, it gives me something to look forward to next year." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA