One egg-stremely unique Christmas tree

This home was our last stop on the Historic Home Candlelight Tour. While it is very inviting on the outside, it was what’s on the inside that blew us away. One egg-stremely, egg-septionally decorated Christmas tree – all the work of one woman known and loved as “Mimi”.

Mimi, a.k.a. Mildred Bryan, was Nita Phillips mom. She made every one of the 500 or so eggs on this tree – from real eggs, even tiny bantam eggs. Each is a meticulous work of art.

“(She was) extremely, extremely patient, said Nita.”She was meticulous in everything she did.”

Mimi saw the idea in a book. Over the course of 45 years she probably made close to 2,000 eggs for her family. She mostly used chicken eggs and used pieces of jewelry, fabric, and beads to decorate around the intricate cuts in the shell.

The scenes she created inside the shells were often art in themselves. She used an ostrich egg for an elaborate nativity scene. Mimi even figured out how to hinge the eggs.

It takes Nita three days to decorate her tree, with help. But it is a labor of love.

Mimi died two years ago at the age of 87. Before she did, she taught a grand-daughter and a great grand-daughter her egg making art.