How long does it take you to decorate your Christmas tree? An afternoon or maybe a weekend? For Caroline Fazio and her mother, Monica Fazio, the process is a two-week-long labor of love that starts with adding about 3,500 lights to their pre-lit 10-foot artificial tree. But the heart-warming holiday magic lies in the tradition.

For as long as Caroline Fazio can remember, her mother included her and her four siblings in decorating the Christmas tree, adding five ornaments representing each of them every year. Today, 35 years after the tradition began, her staggering collection features countless ornaments. And each one is proudly displayed on the “traditional tree,” one of several decorated trees at the Fazio house.

Sometimes, her children pick out ornaments for themselves, like the Harry Styles ornament that Caroline Fazio is most excited about this year. Other times, Monica Fazio selects them to represent personality quirks or milestones met that year, like graduation, marriage or a new baby.

Picking out the new ornaments and unpacking the nearly two dozen boxes that hold previous years’ selections is a tradition they cherish both as a way to celebrate the season and honor the life of Mickey Fazio, Caroline’s older brother, who tragically passed away at just 22 years old when Caroline was 13.

“Christmas was his favorite time of the year, too. He always loved to come in and take all of the ornaments out, and he wanted to get decorated as early as possible,” she recalls. “So it’s a tradition that my mom and I wanted to continue just because he loved it so much.”

Painstakingly, the pair adds ornament after ornament in careful layers, using the additional light strands and branches to hold the ornaments. “It’s like Tetris,” Caroline Fazio laughs. They start at the top and work their way down. Thanks to the glittering display of neatly packed ornaments, there is no need for a tree topper, Caroline Fazio says.

They enjoy watching as the grandchildren search fervently for the new ornaments. For the Fazio family, each one is more than a piece of décor; it is a reminder of a time, experience or season from years past. “Whenever we’re pulling them out, we like to look at them and reminisce on the memories that each ornament represents,” she says.

When the holiday season ends, the pair begin the meticulous removal process, carefully wrapping ornaments and packing them away. What takes two weeks to assemble is put away in a matter of hours, packed away for another year with a few new ornaments joining the tradition.