Posted: 12/20/05
Wiste home says ëChristmasí
With 11 trees and many, many nativities and decorations
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Every twist and turn of the Joan and Paul Wiste home in Houston says ìChristmas.î
It starts with the nativity scene in their front windows at 409 South Grant Street, and it ends ñ well, not really ñ at the top of the stairs with a balsam tree covered with homemade ornaments.
In between are more old and new Christmas symbols and decorations than an average person can take in. There are four real trees and even more artificial ones, many nativity scenes, and thousands of ornaments, many of them antiques.
Joan and Paul opened their house to this reporter on December 12 for an hour-long visit and some photo-taking. They host an open house for family and friends on January 1. If you want to attend, please call the Wistes at 507-896-2036.
I had asked Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann) for the visit after seeing some of her things at the Houston County Historical Societyís Christmas Open House on December 4. The Wistes are very active members of that group, and have many antiques that they share with the public there.
One thing that intrigued me was a nativity scene at the front of the Sheldon Presbyterian Church. The figures are about two feet tall, cut out of plywood. The Wistes have them in their front window, lit from the bottom. Itís a very pretty sight in Houston, and one that the cityís residents look forward to seeing.
Those animals and wisemen and holy family members have a rich history in Houston. They came from the old I.G. Iverson Lumberyard, where Alliance Computer Equipment, Inc., is now located. Every year the figures would be placed in the glass windows of the store at Christmas.
ìI saw it many times and I really liked it,î said Paul, who worked at the lumberyard before it closed in about 1984. The figures were sold at an auction after the lumberyard closed. Paul bought them from that person a few years later and gave them to Joan.
ìThat was a wonderful gift,î Joan said. She said they were made in the 1930s or 1940s.
ìSo now itís kind of a tradition here,î Paul said.
Inside the porch behind the nativity scene is a cedar tree covered with Swedish ornaments made of straw. ìI just collect them and I find them cheap,î Joan said of the straw ornaments.
The main tree is in the living room. Itís a stout white spruce that some friends gave them. It is decorated with ìfiguralî ornaments, things like pickles and mushrooms, animals and snowmen, moons and horns. You name it, youíll probably find it if you look long enough.
They are made of glass, some old and new. Most of the old ones came from Germany and Poland. China is making some good new ones, although the glass in them is a bit heavier than the ones made in Germany, Joan said.
The tree is Paulís favorite thing about the house. ìItís fun to sit and look at this tree,î he said. ìThereís just so much on it.î
It took Joan two days to decorate the tree. ìSheís very creative,î Paul said of his wife.
That was evident during our trip through the house. Literally every room had something ìChristmassyî in it. The dining room had a cedar tree decorated with everything from dried flowers from the Wiste garden to ìVictorian scraps,î ornaments that date to about 1900. It even had old garland tinsel.
On a table in the room was a nativity scene featuring cut-out cardboard figures. It came from Augsburg College in the 1940s, Paul figured.
A tree in the kitchen was decorated with cookie cutters. The shelf in front of a medicine cabinet mirror had ceramic nativity scene figures. The laundry room had a silver tree with colored glass bulbs, with the ever-present nativity set nearby.
Joanís office had a ìfeather treeî that stood about three feet high. It looks like a balsam, but the needles are made of turkey feathers dyed green. It was probably made in about 1920 in Germany. From its branches hang delicate old ornaments, a bird with its wings spread, another with a spun glass tail.
At the top of the stairs stood a balsam that the Wistes bought at Alpine Nursery in Houston. Its tiny white lights cast a warm and sunny glow on the landing, and so perhaps did the ornaments. They were all home-made, the kind that kids do at school, with art work and their photos. ìKind of our homespun tree,î Paul described.
On a nearby table stood a card holder with old Christmas cards. A bedroom off the hallway had an ornament hanger tree given to them by son Erik and daughter-in-law Molly.
That ended out tour, although I took in only a fraction of the decorations. Itís a hobby that started about 25 years ago when Paul and Joan bought their first figurals (a clown and a basket) at an auction in La Crosse, Wisconsin. ìAnd it just mushroomed from there,î Joan said. ìWe like to collect anyway.î
Why do they do it?
ìI think you just enjoy Christmas,î Paul answered first, looking at his wife.
ìI just enjoy Christmas,î Joan repeated. It doesnít get any simpler than that.
Itís fun because they only see the items for a couple weeks out of the year, Paul said.
ìItís just really fun to open them up again and put them on a tree.î Joan added. She likes the figurals and the nativities best of all.
ìShe gets into it more,î Paul said. ìI wouldnít decorate 11 trees, probably.î
Where will it end? ìI canít add too much because I donít have a lot of room,î Joan answered. ìI just want to continue to have festive Christmases.î
Joan is a self-employed medical transcriptionist. Paul is a self-employed carpenter. They have three children: Becky (Tuveson), 25, Houston; Erik, 25, Winona; and Heather, 22, Rochester. They have one grandson.
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