Local man enjoys Christmas in black and white with penguin-themed tree
LAUREL — A Laurel man’s collection of penguins grew so large that his wife staged an intervention.
Jeremy Christiansen has hundreds in his collection and admittedly it had gotten out of hand - what you might call a fullon invasion of the adorable black and white, chubby feathery birds. There were penguins everywhere in his home - even down to the comforter on the bed.
“I remember the day. I came home and my wife sat me down,” Christiansen said. “She said that, ‘I love that you love this but it can’t be in our home.’ ”
Enough was enough, Christiansen said.
Looking back on it, he said it was a good thing his wife, Sheri, made him cut back. But that meant he couldn’t have a full Christmas tree of penguin ornaments which he had come to enjoy thoroughly every year.
It wasn’t until the Christiansens moved to Laurel about four years ago that they decided the two totes of penguin ornaments deserved to be displayed instead of in the garage year-round.
“We have a small second Christmas tree that is dedicated to penguins,” he said. “The tree we bought is flocked so it looks like they are on snow. Some of the ornaments are homemade from my kids.”
His favorite ornament is a jazzthemed penguin that plays “Jingle Bells” on the saxophone.
Christiansen’s love of penguins stems from working as a secondgrade teacher in Omaha. At the time, the Henry Doorly Zoo began building the aquarium and penguin exhibits.
“There was a lot of promotion in Omaha and the state; they decided to really focus on the penguins,” Christiansen said.
Since the Henry Doorly Zoo is renowned worldwide, the zoo’s penguins even garnered attention Internationally.
Christiansen decided to take advantage of all the excitement and turn it into a teaching unit.
“For about six weeks, everything we did dealt with penguins. As a school in Omaha, we also got to take our students (to the exhibit) prior to it opening up to the public,” he said.
Partially due to the penguin unit and the trip to the zoo, students started to gift Christiansen with penguins. He promptly displayed them in the classroom which added to the excitement.
“It snowballed from there,” Christiansen said. “I kept doing the penguin unit and students would continue to gift me more penguin items. Family and friends started to gift me them. Others gifted unique penguins.”
Christiansen even leaned on a former student who was working at the Henry Doorly Zoo’s penguin exhibit who offered an opportunity for two students to have an upclose penguin encounter as part of an activity raffle. The whole experience was live-streamed so the students back at home could watch.
“That was my first time ever being that close and to touch one,” he said.
Christiansen has learned much about penguins over the years and finds many things about them interesting including the fact that the species is family oriented and mate for life.
“They return to the same grounds and the dads actually care for the babies as the mom goes out for food,” he said.
Now as the superintendent of Laurel-Concord-Coleridge School, Christiansen still decorates his office with some of his favorite penguins. He tries to add only very unique penguin items to his collection nowadays and he enjoys sharing his love of penguins online for special observances like Penguin Awareness and National Penguin Days.
His family also gets in on the action as he gifted his grandson, Milo, several penguin books and outfits. He also has a matching penguin costume that is worn on special occasions.
His penguin collection happened quite by chance, Christiansen said. And if he hadn’t been teaching in Omaha that same year of the zoo’s penguin exhibit hype, he probably wouldn’t have collected the penguin items nor the experiences.
“It was just one of those things: I was there at the right time and right place,” he said.
