Many people enjoy the Christmas traditions of decorating a tree, hanging stockings on the fireplace, and putting up Christmas lights on their homes, but some homeowners like to go the extra mile to bring the spirit of Christmas to their neighborhoods.
’Tis the season for homeowners to spend countless hours transforming their houses into glowing works of Christmas joy. From the reindeer on the roof to the snowman in the yard, the decorating process starts in September for Terri Perez in Danville, California.
She repairs her own lights and is known as the “The Christmas Lights Lady.” Her display is 100 percent LED. She said her electric bill increases by about $400 for the holiday season.
Ms. Perez told The Epoch Times: “It truly is a big commitment, but when you see the looks on everybody’s faces, and you see the parents dancing in the snow as well as the kids, it’s priceless. There’s just not a price you can put on it, and, you know, it’s just incomparable to anything else, truly.”
From mid-October through Thanksgiving, Ms. Perez starts to ramp up the decorating process. She starts to put up more and more lights and Christmas figurines in the yard, such as her glowing angel and light-up snowmen, and she turns her driveway into a glowing tunnel of lights.
She said she has a helper, and she calls him a Christmas angel. She said he comes with a tall ladder and puts up all the high decorations, such as Santa and reindeer on the roof, and wraps the trees in the front yard with lights.
Ms. Perez said she loves Christmas and has always put up lights but that it was her grandchildren who inspired her to go for the “wow factor.” She said her children and grandchildren come over on Thanksgiving for a lighting party.
She said: “We have hot chocolate and champagne, and the house is all dark, and they all stand across the street with their backs to the house, then we flip on the lights, they turn around, and it’s awesome to see the response.”
Ms. Perez is in search of lights all year long and tries to add a little bit more each holiday season. She said she doesn’t go for anything fancy or lots of figurines; she prefers lots of colored lights.
“I just liked the magic of the lights, and it seems as though the kids love that too,” she said.
Ms. Perez said that all December she spends time maintaining the lights, making sure they all come on each night.
She said her husband works the snow machine every night manually, because with all the blinking lights, it won’t work properly using a motion detector. She said he sits and waits for the kids to walk up and turns on the snow machine and refills the machine with snow juice about four times a night.
She also said she likes to get dressed up as an elf or as Mrs. Claus and hand out cookies or little bags with crayons and paper for kids to write letters to Santa.
Ms. Perez’s house is listed on CaliforniaChristmasLights.com, which keeps a list of houses that shine the brightest, and this has helped her gain some local popularity.
“On Friday and Saturday night, we could have easily had 200 people,” Ms. Perez said.
The way she keeps count is with candy canes that she hands out to the children every night.
Some people, in appreciation of her hard work, have left gifts at her front door.
“I have gotten some really beautiful, valuable gifts ... gift certificates to Ruth’s Chris, See’s Candy, and gift baskets,” she said.
She added that children have made her ornaments and written beautiful cards telling her how much they love her lights and that she finds that “just amazing.”
Many visitors have called her holiday lights display magical. She said that type of feedback gives her strength to do it again each year.
At home in Concord, California, Cindy and John Bruno told The Epoch Times that they make sure all their decorations are up by the first of December and they keep them up until early January. They said the cost on the electric bill is about $170 for the time the lights are up.
Mr. Bruno said it’s a lot of work but gives him some perspective on life when he sees how much it makes the kids happy. After working in front of his computer all day, he said it’s a nice change of scenery to go outside and look at all the lights.
The Brunos said they do it for the love of Christmas, and the whole family gets involved. Mr. Bruno dresses up as Santa for the visitors, and one of the nights they handed out stockings full of goodies to families that needed help for Christmas while their kids were dressed as little elves giving out hot chocolate and candy canes.
The Brunos’ house is also listed on CaliforniaChristmasLights.com, and many people look forward to seeing it each year.
Ms. Bruno said their display started out little, 34 years ago, and as their four kids got older, it grew a little more each year.
Mr. Bruno said that when their older son was in high school, he wanted to create a big scene, and that’s when they decided to go big.
Ms. Bruno, a Grinch enthusiast, couldn’t narrow down her favorite part of her display, which includes a Santa sleigh, snow machines, a nativity scene, and even a dragon holding a candy cane that their younger son added to the mix.
Ms. Bruno said, “We love it. It brings joy to everybody, and it can make your saddest day happy, just looking at all the lights.”
The Brunos’ holiday decorations wouldn’t be complete without the nativity scene, and Mr. Bruno said he has a tradition of singing a song in Italian when he places the baby Jesus in the manger.
