Kim Zieser of Clive sees Christmas through the glow of 32—count ’em—decorated and lit trees.
Friends tell Kim Zieser of Clive that she is a certifiable Christmas elf. Walk inside her front door and you’ll have to agree. With 32 lit Christmas trees, eight of them nine feet tall plus a bevy of smaller ones, it’s hard not to catch her infectious spirit.
No doubt about it, she lives for December each year. It’s a special month, to say the least. It’s the time to celebrate Christmas, of course. It’s the wedding anniversary month for Kim and her husband, Dave, and it’s the annual occasion of a celebratory ornament exchange party.
The last reason is close to Kim’s heart because it celebrates friendship and history. “Jill Shireman, my late best friend, was our own Martha Stewart, and Jill had started the tradition of the ornament party before I moved back to Clive.” When Jill was diagnosed with breast cancer and started undergoing chemotherapy, they decided to combine guests lists and for Kim to hold the party at her house. It started as a gathering of classmates from Valley High School in West Des Moines, but it expanded to other friends, too. It was wonderful “because everyone knew someone and there was and is a lovely interconnection,” Kim explains.
However, Jill succumbed to her cancer after battling it for 13 years. Now the party is in her honor each year. “I just know she would love that. Every year more new people come, and we’re up to about 45 at this point, including Jill’s daughter, Blaire Shireman, and her mother, Donna Jacobs. It’s a wonderful time of fellowship and friendship.”
Growing Ornament Collection
As the party has grown over the years, so has Kim’s number of trees. When the Ziesers were married, lots of people gave them ornaments because of the December timing. Because of the party, she has gained many more. And, of course, she is always on the lookout for new ones, especially when she travels.
“I don’t have a contemporary bone in my body, so more is more,” she says with a chuckle. It takes her about four weeks to decorate all three floors in her home. She usually starts November 1 and aims to be done by the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Kim weaves in her decorating when she’s not working as a technology project manager for Wells Fargo. Dave is vice president of operations for Jacobson Warehouse Company.
Even when the trees aren’t up, the Ziesers’ home is decorated in deep burgundy and green in the living room and dining room, and the kitchen and family room are red and white.
Multiple elegant trees with shiny baubles decorate the living room and dining room. In the kitchen/family room area a nine-footer with 1,500 ornaments captures the attention of visitors. Garlands of shiny balls, lights, and snowflake shapes swag the windows in the family room, and kitchen stools and chairs have cushions with large red-and-white checks to add to the mood. Wreaths are tied on the back of the chairs.
On a buffet counter in the kitchen is a huge Snow Village. A family game involves moving a little figure called Snowball Boy. Family members try to find him as he moves from hiding place to hiding place. “My sons [Paul, 25, and Grant, 20] may be older now, but deep down they still love all this. They always say they don’t, but then they bring friends to see all the decorations or ask if some friends can bring their mothers over to see them.”
She says Dave doesn’t like the process of putting everything up for the holidays, but he enjoys it when it’s all in place. And, yes, the couple has a rented storage unit to keep all the trimmings the rest of the year.
Her Favorite Tree
On the home’s lower level is Kim’s favorite tree, the one that showcases all the decorations the boys made when they were little—Popsicle-stick frames, macaroni sleds, paper chains, and construction paper reindeer heads, among many, many others. “These are my most treasured ornaments, for sure.”
Kim’s at-home office features a pink shiny tree, full of glitz. For skirts on many of the trees, she uses yard after yard of tulle because it’s inexpensive and drapes easily. On the landing to the lower level, she points to a set of Haviland Twelve Days of Christmas plates, a treasured gift from her mother-in-law, Neva Zieser. She also showcases Christmas prints from artist P. Buckley Moss throughout the home.
On the second floor of the home, Kim had fun in the “girly girl” guest room, a frothy vision in hot pink and pearls, a white tree, and lighted wreaths. “This is important in a house with mostly men,” she says.
Grant’s room has an upside-down tree, which is a German tradition. That idea really shows off the ornaments that hang down from the greenery, not hidden within the tree’s boughs, she says. Paul’s room has a tree with baseball-shape lights purchased at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Both boys play baseball, so this tree is trimmed with baseball cards and ornaments.
Zieser is a German name, and there’s an extra-special tree in the master bedroom, which is full of Christmas color and pillows, to honor that heritage. The small tree is adorned with blown-glass ornaments she purchased on a trip to Germany, where she got to meet her in-laws’ cousins. Even more trees decorate the Jacuzzi in the master bathroom.
Will Kim add more trees to her forest next year? “Nope, I think we have reached maximum saturation right now,” she says.
