You could say that Ken and Ann Perinchief's house in Somerset is a real zoo at Christmas.

"Everybody comes to our house," said Mrs. Perinchief. "We cook a big Christmas meal including turkey, ham and cassava pie.

"We often have people come in from the United States. We start entertaining a couple of days before Christmas and finish in mid-January. People just stop in. Of course, Christmas Eve is by invitation only, and Christmas Day is for family.

"Ken has a fairly sizeable Bermudian family, so between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day the whole family has arrived at one time or another."

Entertaining friends, family and frequently total strangers is the focal point of the holidays for the couple.

Besides the usual friends and family, the Perinchiefs probably see about 250 people troop through their house every year, many of them complete strangers.

People come to the Perinchief's home to see a wired Christmas miniature wonderland set up inside.

The wonderland sprawls across several rooms, and includes a little plane that buzzes in a circle in the air, a Ferris wheel, cable cars and a miniature zoo with moving animals, among many other things.

The couple have been setting up the wonderland for more than 20 years.

Mrs. Perinchief does the designing, and Mr. Perinchief handles the technical side.

"We get a lot of repeat people," said Mrs. Perinchief. "Someone will come and see it and say 'can I bring my grandmother back'. We have one 90-year-old guy who comes about five times a year. He brings up different people from his church. We have gotten to know him quite well over the years."

The Perinchiefs also have a 15-foot Christmas tree on display. "I don't like heights and I don't do ladders," said Mrs. Perinchief. "Ken handled the top bits until a few years ago when he broke his leg in a bike accident.

"Now, we have a friend, Wilma Epstein, from the United States, who flies in every year for two or three days just to help us decorate the Christmas tree.

"She is 73-years-old and weighs about 90 pounds. She climbs the ladder and gives us directions."

The Perinchiefs always have homemade cookies, candy and cake on hand for their guests to munch on.

"I basically live in the kitchen at Christmas," said Mrs. Perinchief. "I don't usually leave the kitchen. Ken does the tours and I do the cookies and that sort of thing. Occasionally, I do the tour, but really, I am more the maid service."

The couple have been married for 23 years. Mr. Perinchief is Bermudian, and Mrs. Perinchief is originally from Long Island, New York. The two met in Bermuda through a mutual friend on a boat cruise around the Island.

Today, Mr. Perinchief is a building manager and electrician, and Mrs. Perinchief works at the West End Development Corporation (WEDCO).

"His experience as an electrician absolutely comes into putting together the wonderland," said Mrs. Perinchief. "All the wires are under the tables, set in styrofoam. And there are hundreds of them. Everything is wired even the tiniest lights that go on the trees."

The foundations for the wonderland were laid two decades ago when she purchased four ceramic houses to paint and put over the fireplace. The only problem was she didn't have a fireplace.

"By the time we built our house we had 20 odd pieces so we never got to put them over the fireplace," she said. "I enjoyed painting. It was a cheap form of entertainment. I got the wife of a friend to start painting also. The wonderland thing started as a little war between us, to see who could come with the most creative decorations at Christmas.

"Right now we have a river that actually works, but in the past, we just made them out of paper or cotton. The other couple has since left Bermuda. We don't have anyone to compete with anymore, but it is still fun."