Check out the 'best Christmas house in Pennsylvania'
Shelly StallsmithA young visitor to Tim and Kim Miller’s house called it “the best Christmas house in Pennsylvania.”
After touring the West York residence recently, it’s hard to argue.
Room after room of nothing but Christmas decorations. A garage that houses a train city (village is the traditional term, but this is way too big to be a village). An outdoor display that people are encouraged to walk through.
The numbers are staggering:
- 71 holiday inflatables
- 400 indoor figurines
- 17 Christmas trees in four rooms
- 90 hours of labor to set up the train city and outdoor displays
- 50 hours of labor to set up the indoor displays
For Tim and Kim, decorating their property is a labor of love.
“My parents loved Christmas,” Kim said. “[Tim] was just lucky enough to fall into it.”
But the man who starts to grow out his beard in September so that it’s nice and bushy to play Santa, doesn’t seem to mind. Tim dons the Santa suit for a few hours on Saturday nights in December as the Millers hand out treats to kids who come through the outdoor display.
It’s free to walk through the display, in the 1600 block of Orange Street, but they will accept nonperishable food donations for the Catholic Harvest Pantry, or pet food donations.
The inside of the house isn’t part of the tour, the Millers put out hundreds of figurines because they love the holiday.
One tree is devoted to Pez dispensers. Another has a gingerbread theme. The only “real” tree in the bunch holds a Christmas ball featuring a painting of their late dog Patches.
One shelving unit holds Lenox collectibles and another holds Santas of assorted shapes and sizes.
A giant nutcracker statue guards the Pez dispenser tree in one corner of a room and a small stuffed abominable snowman stands on the other.
Kim Miller handles decorating the inside, and Tim takes care of the outside. Their decorations come from after-Christmas sales, yard sales and donations. They have paid original price for just one of the inflatables, and that was only to make their granddaughter happy.
They start preparing for Christmas in November, but changes will come to the scenery as soon as the holiday is finished.
“December 26th,” Tim said when asked when his Santa beard and mustache will be removed.
