This holiday house keeps imaginations alive

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 14, 2006

It looks like a house devoted to Christmas, but there is much more underlying the sparkling display of elves, Santas and holiday doodads.

It’s all about Teresa Townsell’s nephews.

Most of her Everett home is devoted to the two boys closest to her heart, from the Batman-themed bathroom to a Harry Potter secret cubbyhole under the steps.

This uber Aunt, 47, who teaches second grade at View Ridge Elementary School in Everett, is a genealogist, decorator, thespian and collector extraordinaire.

She takes the time to pass her skills to her only nephews, Carsten Glans, 9, and Connery Glans, 7. Their mother is Paula Townsell of Everett.

“We are a very close family,” said Paula Townsell, 46. “She does holidays with the kids in mind.”

The sisters’ father hails from Kansas, and they have three siblings. Of the five kids, only Paula Townsell has children. The sisters, and Carsten and Connery, decorate the Everett house together.

Visitors are greeted by nutcrackers the size of children standing guard at the front door. More nutcrackers are displayed in the dining room. In the living room, it’s a Santa theme with red and green aprons draped over two lamp shades. Upstairs is devoted to the boys, with a Peter Pan Christmas tree, a North Pole mail station filled with letters to sort, a cardboard gingerbread house and a wonderful old library card catalog filled with small games appropriately kept in lettered drawers.

When it isn’t decorated for a holiday, it’s a fantasy castle. Young knights dress up and duel.

“They are very imaginative in their play,” Teresa Townsell said. “And artistic.”

Walls filled with holiday pictures of Teresa Townsell and her nephews come down in January, and information about family history goes back up. She is an avid genealogist and is restoring the family homestead in Kansas for donation to a historical society. Friday nights are spent with the boys for movies, popcorn and adventure.

On sunny days, they tend the Peter Pan garden in the back yard.

Year-round on one wall, an old booster hangs that the Townsell kids used at the kitchen table. Teresa Townsell said you have to be sentimental to enjoy her home.

Upstairs is a bat-cave bathroom, dark and foreboding, and I don’t mean it has a black shower curtain. Teresa Townsell scrunched dark brown paper and lined the walls, put stickers all around and filled it with Batman toys.

All is aimed to enhance imaginations. Townsell had the area under the steps off the living room cleared to form a mysterious Harry Potter room. The entrance is through a hole in a closet, very cloak-and-dagger, and extremely appealing to the young at heart.

An elf kitchen can hold no more. Elves here, elves there, lighted, painted, ceramic, paper, in window cases, on top of cabinets with doors wrapped like gifts, near an alcove with a Coca-Cola tree and a sprig of mistletoe the Townsells’ saved from their modest childhood. While they grew up, their father often moved with his job.

Their childhood tree was simple, with just lights and a few balls. A handful of decorations remain – a sleigh here, an elf there – that are treasured highlights of the expansive show.

A poinsettia is set not in a pot but in a red Santa shoe. Bells dangle from antique ribbons. The bric-a-brac is gathered at garage sales, thrift stores and bought online. One strand of garland is weighted with baby socks the nephews used to wear.

Another big holiday is Halloween, when the decorated house is visited by children from her school. There is a girl party for friends at Christmas, and the nephews played host to their chums, who did crafts and put on plays.

All enjoyed what they call “TT’s Christmas Cottage.”

“She is very involved with the kids,” Paula Townsell said. “She has a whimsical, imaginative side and gets excited about holidays.”

With such an elaborate collection, I wondered what one thing Teresa Townsell would take to show on the television program “Antiques Roadshow.”

“My nephews,” she said. “They are priceless.”

Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.