O Christmas Tree: Collection brings such joy and glee to community

BUTLER, Ind. (WANE) -  A Butler man gave NewsChannel 15 an exclusive look at the Christmas tree collection he has been building for 15 years. 

"It's just fun to get them, collect them, and look for different ways to display them each year," said Kevin Kimpel, an avid Christmas Tree collector.

Kimpel said his house has around 75 decorated Christmas trees which is more than the White House which has 54. However, he won't give away how many trees he has in his house in total. He includes any tree that is free standing or hanging.

"I like to have people come and see and guess rather than give a number," Kimpel said.

He said as a kid his dad would always have a lot of Christmas decorations, and he happened to catch the bug.

"And kind of in memory of dad, of doing things a little over the top, and once you find something you might as well do it passionately," Kimpel said.

Kimpel is also an avid traveler. He said when its not Christmas his house is filled with items he's collected from the places he's visited. He said he gets his trees from garage sales, church rummage sales, Goodwills, and random stores from around the world. He's collected quite an array, and he tries to make his display interactive for his guests.

"I have a tree hunt where people look through a list of clues, and they have to go and find specific trees that match those clues," Kimpel said.

He said he's been doing clues for six years, and each year he has 12 clues, but he's never repeated one. People are also able to vote on certain trees with a few exceptions.

"I let people vote for what they think is the most tackiest," Kimpel said. "The only one I exclude is my group of Purdue trees, since I am a Purdue alumni."

Kimpel is having his next open house Friday, Dec. 28 from 5:30-9 p.m.

"There's a lot of trees, but you can look around and appreciate that they're not just plopped there that there's actually some thought put into it," Kimpel said.

He also said over the past 15 years, only three people have guessed correctly the exact number of trees in the house.