If you visit a house over Christmas time, chances are you'll see a nutcracker that has been put up as a decoration.  Well, I visited a house that has a lot more than one.

It’s Bill Wardzinski's house on East 37th Street in Erie.  One of the first things you see when you walk in the house is a shelf with nutcrackers on top.  This month, the shelf displays snowman nutcrackers to match the season.  Last month, the shelf had nutcrackers with a Thanksgiving theme. You can really see the extent of Bill's nutcracker collection when you walk downstairs to the family room. He has over 300 of them. It all started in 1971 when his future brother and sister in-law gave him a basic nutcracker as a present.

"I had zero nutcrackers at that point,” says Bill.  “I never even thought of collecting them.  They gave me that one and probably a couple of years later I was traveling. I would find this one, this one, this one, and started collecting them."

The collection has grown to include a soap dispenser nutcracker, a firefighter nutcracker, light bulb nutcrackers, a nutcracker nativity scene, candle nutcrackers, and a nutcracker playing the piano.  Bill's favorite nutcrackers are those that are hand-made or hand-painted by his friend Margie.  Her gifts to Bill include a Cleveland Browns nutcracker. The Browns are his favorite team.

The nutcrackers are displayed from the nutcracker throw rugs on the floor all the way to the ceiling.

Bill loves to tell the story of the five-foot nutcracker on display in his family room. He purchased it at a store in Alabama while on a business trip for American Sterilizer in 1981.   Bill bought the giant nutcracker before thinking about how he would get it home. The airline told him he could check it with his baggage for an extra 60 bucks. He asked the American Sterilizer shipping department in Alabama to help him pack it.

"They made me a coffin for it,” says Bill with a laugh.  “It was shipped just like a person's coffin. They had holes in it so it could breathe.  I watched it through all the airports because you had to go through four different airports. I'd see it coming down the ramp and everybody's looking like, 'What body is that?"

Bill's nutcrackers are on display throughout the year.  He says his his biggest problem is dusting all those treasures.  Bill has added another nutcracker to his collection since I visited his house last week.  It's a 12-foot inflatable nutcracker now on display in his front yard.  It was another gift from a friend.