Around the dusty-pink Mediterranean-style home in Richmond’s historic Bellevue neighborhood, only faint traffic sounds could be heard from Interstate 95 a few blocks away. A man walked his cocker spaniel. Squirrels skittered across dead brown leaves under a massive magnolia tree.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Bruce Kern began hitting up all of his friends with vans. It takes quite a fleet to transport 97 large Rubbermaid boxes containing 2,500 Christmas ornaments from a storage unit on Brook Road to Kern’s home on Hanover Avenue in Richmond’s Fan District. SLIDESHOW: Bruce Kern’s “problem” with Christmas