Where’s the Tree? : You Can’t See the Forest for the Ornament

Instead of decorating their Christmas tree with ornaments, a Studio City couple has decorated their ornament with Christmas trees.

The bright red ornament is 4 feet wide.

The 100 Christmas trees fastened to its side are 1 inch tall.

The only thing normal about the corner of Sasha Ferrer’s living room where the huge ball-like ornament stands are the gaily wrapped gifts. They are spread out in the normal fashion. And they are regular size.

“We wanted to do something different for Christmas,” said Steve Goldsmith, Ferrer’s husband.

“It’s a Christmas tradition with us,” Ferrer said.

Christmases at their Halkirk Street home are hardly traditional, however.

Past holidays have seen such things as tinsel-covered and light-bedecked ladders, bicycles and TV antennas instead of Christmas trees.

Ferrer said Thursday that their decorations always have a Christmas look to them--or at least carry some sort of holiday feeling.

“My favorite was the decorated shopping cart we had in 1985,” she said. “That’s what I always do at Christmas--shop.”

This year’s ornament is made of papier-mache, cardboard and chicken wire. It took the couple 40 hours to construct, and it turned out so big that it had to be cut in half before it could be squeezed into their living room and reassembled.

The tiny Christmas trees attached to it are model railroad set trinkets that they purchased at a Florida flea market while on vacation, said Ferrer, a television writer-producer.

Goldsmith, who works for a videotape editing equipment firm, said the pair hold a Christmas party each year to unveil their latest “tree.” Most guests bring unusual ornaments to add to it.

“Some of our friends say we’re creative. But some think we’re weird,” he said.

One friend, Frank Saperstein of Los Angeles, said Thursday that Goldsmith is right on both counts.

“You never know what to expect,” Saperstein said. “I will say that this year’s big ornament is a little more festive than, say, the ladder was.”

But Ferrer and Goldsmith shouldn’t worry if they are unable to get on the ball early enough to do something different next year, he said.

“We like regular Christmas trees,” Saperstein said.