Woodland Hills resident Kathy Knapp noticed that after some dead trees were cleared away along Peaceful Pines Drive, the only way in and out of her subdivision, one tree was inexplicably left standing alone near the road.

"It was so very dead with not a needle on it," she said.

In her daily travels in and out of Woodland Hills, she grew accustomed to seeing the tree there, and one day several weeks ago an idea came to her.

"I decided to go get a great big red ornament, hang it on the tree, and see what would happen," she said. So she enlisted the help of her husband, who hung the soccer ball sized ornament about halfway up the tree.

The next day, Knapp was surprised to see a green ornament hanging on the tree. After returning from a trip to Hawaii, she found all kinds of ornaments adorning the tree.

"I don't know who else has been helping to trim the tree, but there were inflatable ornaments, old CDs, homemade decorations made out of bowls and duct tape, and even garland on it. It made me smile," she said.

Woodland Hills neighbor Linda Kramer takes credit for the inflatable ornaments.

"The red and green ornaments were the only ones on it for a couple weeks," she said.

"Then last Saturday afternoon I stopped and hung the blow-up ornaments, which we've had around for years. By Monday, the tree was pretty full."

Kramer said that the students in the Kid's Stop afterschool program at Black Hawk Elementary School are making ornaments for the tree, and Knapp said she's thinking about stringing battery-powered lights on it for Christmas Eve.

"It's really turned into a beautiful tree, although my husband says it's only beautiful in my sight," she said.

Just as Charlie Brown's lonely, scrawny little tree helped everyone to understand the true meaning of the holiday, so it is with the "Woodland Hills tree."

"This really represents Christmas to me because it wasn't at all organized," Kramer said.

"People really do still have the spirit of Christmas."