Burb’s Eye View: Magical truck has become a sound tradition

Three decades ago, Rick Holbrook threw some Christmas lights on a pickup truck and put some musicians in the back.

They tooled around North Hollywood on Christmas Eve for a few hours, singing a couple of songs. The sound was paramount — Holbrook and his friends are audio engineers and whenever you experience Toluca Lake’s Magical Christmas Caroling Truck that’s 10,000 watts of pure jingling Christmas cheer shaking your chest.

The truck is not just seen or heard, but experienced. Today, the truck is a semi pulling a full village behind it filled with dozens of carolers and dancers. It is its own parade, a joyous if slightly deafening herald of the pinnacle of the season.

Now in its 31st year, the truck is baked into people’s Christmas plans in Toluca Lake. One woman on the mobile concert’s route will turn 90 on Christmas Eve, and to celebrate she and her family will step outside to enjoy the pageantry that bumps up to her doorstep. She hands out hot cocoa to the hundreds of volunteers who make the truck possible.

“We’ve become part of each other’s tradition,” said Lorena Holbrook, chief bubble-soap orderer and light-bulb coordinator for the Magical Christmas Caroling Truck.

The first year we experienced it, my wife and I had settled on the couch after an evening of egg nog and cookies. A booming chorus soon broke the peace. We’d thought maybe the rapture had come.

That year, we joined strangers on the sidewalk, slightly bemused by the blasts of “Joy to the World” bellowing through the street. Since then, we’ve become friends with many in that audience, sharing in the new tradition because our families are far away.

That’s how I relate to the Rick Holbrook of 1984, who just wanted to spend time with his buddies and appreciate the friendship they had. That kind of thing has a way of snowballing.

I know of at least two friends who this year are cooking massive dinners for Christmas and opening their doors to any strangers who want to come in for a meal. For one friend it’s an annual tradition, and I hope the other finds copious awards in this spirit of generosity and fellowship.

My grandmother carried that same spirit throughout the year. At any time, and at some risk to her safety and her bank account, she never once refused to feed anyone who showed at her door. She never had much, but every year there were presents from her under our tree.

On Christmas Day, my dad would make a call to her so we could personally thank her with the traditional “We love our gifts from you and we love you too, Mimi.” At her funeral a few months ago, my uncle said, “We were the richest kids in (our town) and we didn’t have a dime.”

The riches of friends and family seemed to be valued more by the older generations when I was growing up. I’d always think, how can the adults say they’ve got all they need when Santa is literally waiting for their wish lists?

Not all treasures can be seen by eyes alone. They must be experienced.

I called the Holbrooks Monday to ask them how many lights are on their gigantic joy-explosion of a Christmas truck, and how many miles it travels. I wanted to know about the 35,000 watts of glorious electricity pumping the 10,000-watt sound system that delivers “White Christmas” straight past your eardrums and directly into your soul.

Lorena told me about the first time Rick put together the pickup. She recalled 31 years of friends who come out to show the Holbrooks their new babies or to deliver the news of neighbors who had passed throughout the year.

She talked of the traditions that their little idea sparked, and how each of us might spread that spark by being decent to each other.

“There’s magic in the air and we just want to make something beautiful,” Lorena Holbrook said.

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BRYAN MAHONEY writes about Burbank neighbors and the place they call home. He can be reached at 818NewGuy@gmail.com and on Twitter at @818NewGuy.