Christmas Light-Display Freakout!

Greetings from Discovery Way in Concord, California, where holiday house displays are de rigueur for a hillside suburban community full of Christmas Spirit. You can have your HGTV specials and that house down the road with a bunch of twinkly icicle lights dangling from its rain gutters. But nobody's going to out-light Discovery Way within a 50-mile radius. The proof is in the pudding—the Christmas pudding.

Exhibit A: This house is pure lunacy and I love it. It has a tropical palm-tree theme with large-scale illuminated manger, flamingos, butterflies, and a ladder with Santa endlessly making his way to the rooftop. There's just a neon artistry to this that can't be replicated.

This photo is from last year, showing the dedication to theme

Christmas Flamingos

So inspiring, I made a movie of it, featuring the dulcet tones of Mr. Bobby Vinton.


O Holy Night from Miss Lisa on Vimeo.


There's more! Is there one square inch of this house NOT covered in lights? I think not. This is dedication.

This front yard promotes peace between the U.S. and the Middle East. That's my interpretation.

There will be no wreckless driving through the streets of Bethlehem on this Santa's watch. The penguin with the radar gun will see to it.

OVERWHELMING CHRISTMAS...

...but with a delicate touch. The garage of the above house with the gigantor Santa has a facade that shows holiday movies on one side, while housing a tiny diorama of a Christmas village on the other. The family pet within the garage barked hysterically at us while we marveled at this scene. All our Christmas senses were fully engaged in one tableau.

Tiny Christmas village

Have a merry one. See you in 2015.

A side note: Concord's Mr. Christmas is retiring after 36 dedicated years to home decoration. We visited his house last year and I just want to hail his Christmas spirit, which is merry and bright. Thank you, Mr. Christmas, and to all home decorators during the dark winter months. Have a fabulous holiday.

Mr. Christmas' home, 2013

Thank you, Mr. Christmas!