Indiana Man Stuffs House With 86 Christmas Trees

By Eliza Murphy December 11, 2013

A bright idea? Or maybe not.

A lot of people debate every year whether to get a Christmas tree, but there's absolutely no question for Brandon Smith of Greenwood, Ind.

Smith has 86 artificial trees jammed into his 1,400-square-foot home.

What started as a hobby more than a decade ago has turned into a full-blown obsession.

"Christmas was a big German holiday for my family," Smith, 31, told GoodMorningAmerica.com. "My parents always put up a pretty good display and I just have grown and expanded on it over the years."

But many of Smith's whopping 86 trees come from donations.

"It's not uncommon for us to come home in the middle of July and find a Christmas tree on the front porch," Smith explained. "We've had a lot of donations from elderly people that don't want to put up decorations anymore, and we're happy to take them."

The trees, ornaments and lights are literally everywhere, covering his floor up to his ceiling, even crammed into the bathroom.

"There's eight more trees this year than last year," Smith told ABC News affiliate RTV6 in Indianapolis. "Lots of different types of lights that you really can't find around here."

He has 52,000 lights in total, which is quite a time-consuming project to assemble, but Smith doesn't seem to mind.

"We love Christmas," he said. "There's no denying that."

The entire display, now in its 11 th year running, takes Smith four weeks to set up before opening his well-lit doors to the public.

Christmas connoisseur's from all over are welcome to tour his home for free, although he does leave out a donation box for Riley Hospital for Children.

And although it's a tight squeeze in some places, there is one benefit from the Christmas clutter. All the lights keep the house a warm 85 degrees, which means no heat bill for Smith all season.