Maui woman creates a fantasy world open to all

Eleanor and Alan Watanabe spare no time or expense in decorating the 13 themed Christmas trees in their home. Alongside the Christmas trees, the Watanabes display Nativity scenes, miniature villages and more than 400 dolls. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

WAILUKU, Maui — Eleanor Watanabe was so poor growing up in a plantation camp in Hamakuapoko, Maui, that her parents couldn't afford to celebrate Christmas.

"I had nothing," she said. "Nobody decorated anything.

I asked for a doll for Christmas, and my mom would say we had to put food on the table."

Alan Watanabe turns on tree lights at his Wailuku home. The trees, which cost as much as $5,000 to decorate, stay up all year and are exquisitely decorated with materials his wife has spent years collecting. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

• Why she and her husband, Alan, will wake up this morning to the sight of 13 Christmas trees, all lavishly appointed with only the finest ornaments and decorative features.

• Why miniature Christmas villages, Nativity scenes and holiday trinkets and collectibles of all types fill her Wailuku Heights home.

• Why she has more than 400 dolls on display, including some 200 Barbies and 200 Madame Alexander dolls.

As it turns out, Watanabe's holly-and-tinsel-deprived childhood has become a holiday blessing to Maui as the couple open their home to the public each Christmas season.

"It's a real Christmas tradition for a lot of people," said Maureen Marrs, owner of Maureen's Gifts and Christmas in Kahului. "People call me in September wanting to know when her open houses are going to be. I print a schedule for customers."

A visit to the Watanabe house is a dazzling, fairyland adventure and must-see for all Christmas junkies.

Last week, at her final open house of the season, the throng included visitors who had come from Honolulu just to see the spectacle. There were tourists from Japan and a couple from New York who said they had never seen anything like it.

An elderly pair from Seattle ran into the mayor of Maui County as they were leaving.

"They told me this is what makes Maui County so special — the hidden jewels," said Mayor James "Kimo" Apana. "And it really is amazing."

The mayor, a collector of miniature Christmas houses, visits the Watanabe home annually, and last week brought along members of his staff.

Watanabe, 75, continues her hobby even after breast cancer, chemotherapy and radiation treatment less than two years ago. The doctors believe the cancer is gone, but she remains weak.

Watanabe may have to slow down, but she has no plans to give up. In fact, she added two new trees this year. And as impressive as the dolls and holiday collectibles are, the Christmas trees are the real stars at the Watanabe home.

These works of art in a rainbow of colors and festive themes include the Victorian Tree, bedecked with old-fashioned dolls and lacy boxes with silk flowers; and the Renaissance Tree, adorned with grapes, berries, angels and cherubs.

There's the Hallmark Tree, filled with delightful animation and pop-culture ornaments; an Old-Fashioned Tree, festooned with traditional glass ornaments made in Germany; and the Wedding Tree, graced by white and silver ribbons and trinkets.

It all started a few decades back when Watanabe worked as a telephone operator. Some of her colleagues would come over to the house to see her tree.

"They they would say, 'Don't take it down. We want to bring our friends.' I wondered why, because I thought anyone could do this," she said.

Clearly, not everyone could.

That became evident when Watanabe entered a national Christmas tree-decorating contest sponsored by Good Housekeeping magazine. She didn't think she had a chance, but she sent a photo anyway.

She won first prize, which turned out to be an all-expense-paid trip to Lahaina. The magazine let her choose second prize: a one-week trip to London.

Buoyed by that success, she dove into Christmas with zeal, sinking most of her extra income into her passion.

It helped that she got a job at Maureen's Gifts and Christmas, which allowed her to go on Mainland buying trips.

Over the years the hobby has consumed more and more space, money and time. The trees turned artificial and started filling up the house. The couple replaced the carpet for a smooth floor of snow-white tile and expanded the living room into the lanai, a son's room and yet another bedroom.

"I told my son he can't come home anymore," she said, laughing.

One year, when the lights started to blink, she had to upgrade the house electrical system.

One tree might cost as much as $5,000, and it takes two to three years to collect enough ornaments and material to decorate a tree to her exacting standards.

"I used to work overtime just to buy ornaments," she said.

Watanabe meticulously decorates each tree. She winds the light-bulb cords tight around the branches so they can't be seen. Ornaments of all shapes and sizes hang from branches and rest on top of them. Lights and ornaments are strategically placed both inside and out.

"I don't like to see holes," she said.

Instead of an ordinary star as a tree-topper, she'll fashion something unusual, such as the topper on her Blue Tree, a white bush inhabited by a flock of blue birds.

All of the trees are ringed at their base by presents in matching gift wrap.

"When the family gives us presents, they go right into the bedroom — because they don't match," she said.

The trees are up year-round to save on redecorating, but each tree is undressed and given a thorough cleaning every so often.

Watanabe has been offered money to decorate hotel Christmas trees, but she always turns down the offers. She doesn't enjoy decorating other people's trees.

Her husband Alan, a former First Hawaiian Bank branch manager, supports his wife's preoccupation and helps her put up trees, build display cases and lay down tile.

But her parents have never approved. They think she is wasting her money. Her 95-year-old mother still scolds her every time she comes to the house.

Watanabe said her father used to say that if she were his wife, they would have gotten a divorce long ago.

"And I would say, 'It's OK, I wouldn't have married you anyway,' " she said.

Even when it's not Christmas, Watanabe finds joy in her trees. Throughout the year, they will light up a couple of trees occasionally and drink their morning coffee.

"I never get tired of it," she said. "I just love it."