HETTINGER - To a normal person, decorating one tree merits two Tom and Jerrys, three shots of brandy, four cups of cider and five hours of sleep.

And then there's JoAnn Jacobsen of Hettinger.

She is not normal.

She is a self-described Christmas-holic, addicted to Christmas trees rather than Christmas cheer.

Her trees are so beautiful, so beyond the average that the normal tree decorator doesn't even have to feel despair. It would be as pointless as getting depressed at the Louvre just because you can't draw a straight line.

Jacobsen is an artist and the humble tree her canvass, a lifetime's collection of ornaments and oddities her medium.

From 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. today and Sunday she'll throw open her green extra-wide front door, and along with husband Tom, host everyone who comes through.

They offer a tour of their trees every year and use free-will donations to benefit a community cause - this year it's to send kids to music camp.

The Jacobsen home is beautiful in and of itself, the thoughtful expression of JoAnn's artistic temperament evident in paint, art and furniture.

With 12 illuminated and decorated trees, the home rises to the next level, a level that causes a gasp of appreciation when walking in. Truly.

It's important to note that it didn't get to this level overnight. That's not a warning of the "don't try this at home," variety.

It's just to acknowledge that JoAnn's collections and sensibilities matured over many years, as with any artist whose grasp of her subject deepens with time.

Each tree has its own theme, and Jacobsen said choosing the theme sometimes presents the biggest challenge.

This year, her themes are a mix of color, texture and regions. They range from the stunning 12-foot pearl-and-gold tree inside the front door, to a tree of cherries and butterflies, a Mardi Gras tree, a Southwestern tree, to a frost tree of delicate white and mirrors, most interesting with its heaviest foliage hugging the ceiling, in an upside-down fashion.

Jacobsen touches the sparkling suspended mirrors on her frost tree. "I hadn't used these in a long time. I'd forgotten I had them," she said.

It's a good thing trees, unlike kids, can't hear because she has a favorite.

It competes for attention in the same room with a Victorian tree, gorgeously dripping and bedecked in jewels and gold.

The favorite sits modestly in the corner, the only live tree of the bunch. Its short-needled branches hold simple metal balls from years ago and silver tinsel worn from being used over and over.

The simple adornments are Tom Jacobsen's mother's and so the tree is named for her.

Unlike the normal decorator who sets up a tree two weeks before Christmas and knocks off after a short afternoon, Jacobsen devotes weeks to the work. She begins in early November and by now has many friends who offer an evening or an afternoon to help.

The trees stay up until February, or later, when she is ready to disassemble them and pack the ornaments away, thinking of the next Christmas as she goes.

At one time, she decorated as many as 29 trees and has more ornaments and decorations in storage than she uses every year. Still, she keeps them all because she never knows how inspiration will strike and what she'll reach for.

This is not something she rushes through, anymore than a potter or a sculptor would hurry a piece.

Her approach is perhaps her best advice to anyone who sees more in their mind's eye than they do when they stand back to look at the result of their effort.

"I don't think about time. I just putz away," she said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)