Nashville's Cheekwood Estates and Gardens has illuminated its gardens with one million holiday lights throughout the mile-long walking path. Shelly Mays
The late journalist B. C. Forbes wrote, “Christmas is a tonic for our souls. It moves us to think of others rather than of ourselves. It directs our thoughts to giving.”
The “tonic” of Christmas flows freely in the home of Kim Temple Lynch. The “empty nest” mother of three decorates nearly 30 trees inside the Arrington home she shares with her husband Dan.
Cooper Jones, Lynch's four-year-old grandson, loaned her the wings from his Buzz Lightyear costume for the special Buzz Lightyear-themed tree she decorated just for him.
Lynch attributes her enchantment with Christmas to a unique melding of her family’s and her husband’s family’s holiday traditions and styles.
The high school sweethearts lived within a few miles of one another in their hometown of Amarillo, Texas.
“Dan’s mom [the late Peggy Lynch] made Christmas really fun. Every Christmas Eve, Peggy or one of her sisters would host [the family’s] Christmas party. The sisters shared their collection of Spode Christmas dishes,” Lynch said. “There’d be initials on the back of all the dishes so they’d remember whose was whose.”
At the end of the festive evening, the “Christmas pie” would make its appearance. Lynch doesn’t know why it was called a pie when in actuality it was a large hatbox. However, the “pie” contained small gifts for each guest and when the host brought it out it meant it was time to go home.
“The Lynch side of the family had a ‘more is more’ mentality about Christmas,” she said.
Kim’s mother, Wilma Falke Temple, took a more moderate approach.
“Every year, my mom would decorate her flocked Christmas tree with blue ball ornaments while my brother and I were at school. It was all very orderly and neat—each ornament was place with precision and care,” she said.
Lynch’s parents’ parents all lived in Kansas. They’d visit them each Christmas.
“My mom’s mom [Regina Falke] had an amazing aluminum Christmas tree with the color wheel that I could watch forever. What I would give for that piece of Americana!”
Lynch said that when it came to her other grandmother, Martha Temple, “there was no rhyme or reason to anything but it was so happy and festive…. And there was always a lot of eggnog, which might be the explanation for that!”
Lynch said that Christmas is her “happy place.”
Throughout the year, she takes notes and keeps lists of new decorating ideas to implement.
Whereas a hobby like hers could get expensive, most her trees were either purchased at thrift stores or gifted to her by people who were discarding theirs.
It’s what she does with the trees that make them special.
“Every tree means something. It’s like a walk through our family,” she said.
Each tree in a row of trees displayed atop the entertainment center represents the members of her immediate family.
There’s a sports themed tree for her sports fanatic son and daughter-in-law, Michael and Lillian Lynch, a Texas A&M themed tree for her Aggie-loving son Austin and a Harry Potter themed tree for his fiancée, Taylor Thompson.
The tree that represents her daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and Cory Jones, dons three especially significant ornaments this year. The ornaments are cloth dolls—a doll to represent the Jones’s son Cooper and two dolls (a boy and a girl) to represent the child or children they are in the process of adopting from Haiti. The process is slow and arduous. They do not yet know if they will be matched with one child or two siblings.
“We are already researching Haitian Christmas traditions to incorporate into our family’s traditions,” Lynch said.
Lynch’s favorite tree is displayed in her kitchen/breakfast area. From its limbs hang years and year’s worth of the family’s childhood handmade ornaments–including one Dan made when he was three-years old.
Some of the other trees include a beach-themed tree filled with sand dollars Lynch collected in Florida, a Texas-themed tree representing their home state, a tree Cory made from a shipping pallet and a travel-themed tree with ornaments they’ve collected on their journeys abroad.
Lynch also collects nativity sets.
“I try to have one nativity set per tree,” she said.
Among her favorites are an heirloom nativity she inherited, a hand-carved nativity they purchased while traveling in Italy and a marble set she purchased while on a missions trip in Nicaragua.
“See, everything means something to me. I think about the people and the memories as I decorate,” Lynch said.
Charles Dickens said, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year.”
Lynch’s thoughtfully and festively bedecked home reflects the spirit of Christmas that is always with her.
She’ll happily provide a home for any orphaned ornaments, trees and decorations.
