Ashland — The halls of the Wheeler family home in Ashland are already decked with Christmas decor.

So is just about every other inch of the house.

The Sherwood Drive home, shared by Roger and Leslie Wheeler and their three sons, hosts Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations for the extended family.

Visitors are greeted first by brightly lit bushes and a cheery snowman, but the real magic is inside where holiday accents brilliantly adorn each every room.

A large red poinsettia fills a hallway. A noble blown-glass snowman gazes down on a bustling kitchen. Christmas dish displays grace shelves in the living room. Every shelf or table top is adorned with a religious or modern holiday display.

“Christmas is our favorite time of year because it is our Savior’s birthday and that’s how we celebrate it in our home,” explains Leslie Wheeler.

“We really love all the decorations and it really is a neat time of year. As you can see we don’t just decorate trees, we decorate the whole house,” she said during a tour of the two-story home.

Four Christmas trees can be found throughout the house, each one dressed for the unique function it serves during the Wheeler’s Christmas celebration.

The tree in the Wheeler’s main sitting room is the focal point of all the decorations. The grandly adorned formal tree is used to exchange gifts among the extended family.

In the last 13 years, Leslie Wheeler has perfected decorating it. The tree takes approximately two days to put together and incorporates both creative design and strict attention to detail.

One whole day is dedicated to “fluffing” the needles of the artificial tree and strategically placing the strands of lights. The second day is reserved for the real decorating.

Almost every inch is laden with sparkling crystal orbs and twinkling metal ornaments. Intricate cloth, ceramic and wooden ornament works hang gracefully from limbs as well.

Lush red and gold ribbon garland wrap the boughs and a deep velvet bow adorns the top.

“My husband is really into Christmas and decorations. This is his tree. He’s the biggest kid in the family,” said Leslie Wheeler admiring her finished product.

“Every year, we add ornaments to it, people buy ornaments for us. Every year my friends and family will say, ‘Wow, its even more pretty this year than it was last year,’” she said.

Her favorite tree is the smallest most humbly decorated one in the home. Dubbed, “The Snoopy tree” the evergreen is decorated by her sons in simple hand-hewn ornaments and is located in the upstairs loft the boys share.

Two smaller, more casually decorated trees in the home’s basement den are the center of the family of five’s Christmas morning.

Santa Claus leaves his unwrapped gifts beneath one of the trees while the gifts the family exchanges among themselves are placed beneath the second tree. The families stockings — including one for the pooch — are hung near by.

Like a scene from a Christmas story book, a visitor can easily imagine the family sprawled about the room unwrapping gifts on Christmas morning illuminated by a glowing fire in the small cast iron stove at the center of the den.

Leslie’s affectionate touch is everywhere in the home. In the little more than two years since the family moved to Ashland from Lexington, she has painted it from top to bottom and infused it with her warm style.

“I’ve always had a flair for decorating. I just like pretty things and my eye is sort of drawn to it. It’s just kind of a God-given gift,” she said. That’s not to say, Leslie Wheeler doesn’t toil at the task.

For her, decorating her home for the holidays is as much a part of the celebration of Christmas as reading verses of Luke before the holiday dinner.

“The Lord takes care of us and he gives us things. He loans them to us to use and its our job to take care of them and to make them look their best. The Word says to do everything as unto the Lord and I believe in doing that in my family life, in my church life and in my work life and everywhere, so I really take a great interest in my home and in my family,” she said.

“We have a humble home but we take care of it. I want my family to have the very best that they can and that’s what God’s promises are: That he will bless us in all areas of our lives.”

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.