Christmas Lights

Ever since I was a little kid, one of my favorite parts of the holiday season was seeing all the houses decked out with lights and decorations.

While my own family did our part each year to bring joy to passerby’s, putting up lots of fun Christmas lights, lawn decorations and whatever else we could come up with, it was walking or driving around other neighborhoods and seeing their decorated houses that I remember so vividly and still enjoy so much today.

I remember piling into the car when my family lived in Fremont and driving to Cripps Court. This was a whole street that went all out decorating their houses and collecting donations for charity. It was a yearly winter pilgrimage for the lights, a visit with Santa and candy canes.

When my family later moved to Mount Shasta we found its own version of Cripps Court. But now instead of driving across town we only had to look next door to see a fantastically lit holiday wonderland. Our neighbor Dave Athens and his family took it upon themselves to put up a whole neighborhood’s worth of decorations all in their own yard. It is a magical endeavor that they bring to the community each year.

(My mom and I walking through Dave’s Holiday Decorations in 2011)

I remember I was excited each December when I lived in San Francisco for all the big buildings in the financial district to put up their huge light displays. The building I worked in brought in trees and lots of decorations for our lobby which made me smile each day I walked in. I also loved going to the roof at our house and looking out over SF at all the various holiday lights you could see spread across the city at night.

Now that I live in Santa Barbara I enjoy walking around the neighborhoods at night looking at all the decorated and lit up houses. A friend of Alena told us about a famous house that goes all out for the holidays. A little online research and I discovered it was The Miracle on East Quinientos Street. It is the house of Peter Estrada, who has been decorating his house since the early 1990’s. We went to see it and it was so amazing! The neighborhood around this area is filled with awesomely decorated houses as well!

(The Miracle on East Quinientos Street from across the street)

(Close up to the fun of The Miracle on East Quinientos Street)

No matter where I live or how old I get, I will always keep on my tradition of wandering around my town looking at people’s awesome holiday house displays. It always was and still is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season.

So thank you to everyone who puts in the hard work of beautifully decorating their homes and businesses for the joy of the community and people like me each winter.

Happy Holidays!

Alan Evans