Christmas a favorite time of year at Gertson home
By BURLON PARSONS bparsons@journal-spectator.com

Staff Photo by Burlon Parsons Maryan Gertson looks at some of the ornaments collected through the last 53 years which now grace her home's Christmas tree.

The East Wharton County Unit of the American Cancer Society will host its biannual Christmas Tour of Homes from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9.

This year two of the three homes are in East Bernard and the third in Lissie.

Featured on the tour are the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition residence of John and Monica Kubena, 18618 CR 270 in East Bernard, Harlan and Nena Boettcher's Texas country ranch home at 17502 Highway 90A in East Bernard, and the ranch-style home of Dan and Maryan Gertson at 1105 CR 271 in Lissie.

A pleasant drive down Highway 90A from East Bernard takes one to Lissie. It's and intriquing little community worth some exploring.

Instead of "Over the river and through the woods ..." its turn on CR 271 over the creek and across the prairie to the Dan and Maryan Gertson home.

The ranch-style home was completed in 1958 owned by Dan and Maryan Gertson and served as "home" for the six children they reared.

Staff Photo by Burlon Parsons Maryan Gertson's collection of village buildings now numbers 120 and are spread out in three rooms of the home.

Being part of the American Cancer Society is special for the Gertsons. Dan is a 25-year cancer survivor, both of their parents died of cancer, Dan lost two sisters to cancer and Maryan is a seven-year cancer survivor. She also lost a grandson, Jonathan Kramr, to cancer when he was 7-years-old.

Maryan always decorates the home for Christmas. It's her favorite time of the year.

"I've always liked Christmas," Gertson said. "My grandmother always made a big thing out of Christmas, also."

Christmas decorations filling the home while rearing her children were a little simpler, Gertson has added her own touches as her children grew older and left home. Some of the core decorations are 53 years old.

That includes several holiday collections she has put together which are displayed in the home.

She now has 120 miniature Christmas village pieces which are all to scale and scattered through three rooms of the home.

Also on display are eight of the annual Lennox Christmas plates she has collected.

Then during the Thanksgiving holidays her grandchildren spread throughout the home to count her nativity scenes.

Their final number is 45. There are nativities from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Italy and Ireland in the collection. Each of the 45 has its own story.

The oldest was a favorite of daughter Terry Wicke when she was a child.

Also scattered throughout the home are her collection of nine Thomas Kinkade framed prints.

Another collection Gertson has put together are her Hummel figurines. She has Hummel figurines to represent each of her children and each of her grandchildren.

Accenting the home are also tapestries gathered from her travels to Europe.

When the entire family gathers for the holidays there are 28 of them all together.

Gertson says she always gets the Christmas village in place before Thanksgiving. The rest of the Christmas decorations go up right after Thanksgiving.

There's nothing unusual about the way the home is decorated for this year's tour. Gertson says it is decorated this way for the holidays every year ready to welcome guests and family.