THE LIGHTS FANTASTIC : Many Neighborhoods Are Brightened by More Than Christmas Spirit

When Marc Vertin leased a home on Loma Verde in Mission Viejo 4 years ago, he had to promise to put out the owner’s Christmas decorations when the holiday rolled around.

Vertin didn’t give much thought to the odd stipulation until Thanksgiving brought a spectacular transformation to the street. Thousands of lights were strung on neighborhood houses and trees, lawns were covered with artificial snow and holiday characters--animated penguins skating around lampposts, cutesy forest animals and Santas--as well as train sets, Nativity scenes and even a huge menorah.

Places such as Loma Verde are scattered throughout the county, neighborhoods where decorations go well beyond the traditional string of lights.

Vertin had little idea at first of what he was getting into, but he has since entered into the spirit. After buying the house, he gave away the previous owner’s Santa and elves and last year started creating his own decorations with the help of Andy Schoneberg, a longtime friend who lives in Reseda in Los Angeles County.

Now gracing Vertin’s lawn is a collection of characters from Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” including a 6-foot-tall Grinch. Schoneberg, who specializes in “making monsters” for a Northridge special-effects studio, is the creative force behind the figures. “This is a nice change of pace,” he said.

“This block always goes all-out for Christmas,” said Vertin as he and Schoneberg put finishing touches on their display. “People come from miles around to see it.”

Vertin said his four children “love it” but let Dad do most of the work.

“They think I’m crazy, anyway,” he said.

Down the street, Jim and Karen Hoover were finishing up their display, one that has won a community decorating contest 5 years in a row. Penguins are the dominant motif, especially with this year’s addition of “Penguin Peak,” a huge mural of skiing penguins that covers one side of the 2-story house. The display also includes a model train layout in the garage, an animated Santa and a “teddy bear tree” in an upstairs window.

“We’ll get 100,000 people (driving through) over the holidays,” said Hoover, a businessman. “It’ll get to where you have to wait an hour to get into the neighborhood. There’ll be so many people, you won’t be able to walk on my driveway.”

That has led to complaints from neighbors about the “circus atmosphere,” but Hoover dismisses the dissenters: “Anywhere you go, there’s going to be someone who doesn’t like Christmas.”

But the Hoovers admitted that they, too, sometimes wonder about all the trouble. Before finishing the decorations last Saturday, they had spent every day for 3 weeks on the project. They haven’t been to a Christmas party in years: With the elaborate display and all its mechanical features, they have to be there at night to watch over it, Hoover said. And then there’s the pressure to top themselves each year.

The Hoovers, who learned their craft from friends, make most of the decorations themselves and have even made them for other people. It can be expensive. In addition to the cost of materials and electricity, there are the special touches that can’t be made by hand, such as one model train engine that cost $1,000.

“Ask me next week,” Hoover said, when queried as to whether it is all worth it.

“Is there another word that means more than overwhelming?” asked Karen Hoover, exasperation in her voice.

But, she added, “as tiring as it is for us, we know the joy it brings the kids. And the parents.”

“I got into it,” her husband said, “and I just kept building. I’m just a big kid at heart.”

But, he said, the display is about as big as it’s going to get: “We could keep adding, but where do you draw the line?”

Maybe Hoover should ask Jim Jordan that question. For Jordan, Christmas decorating begins in July.

That’s when Jordan sits down with his volunteer “design team” to map out the annual addition to his Gargantuan holiday display, which each year draws thousands of visitors to the lawn of his mother’s house at the corner of Santa Ana Boulevard and Albert Place in Costa Mesa. (Jordan lived in the house until he was married in May; he still lives in the neighborhood.)

Once his design is complete, he starts to build his newest creation in his fully equipped workshop. This year’s model is a free-standing Santa’s workshop, about 7 feet high, with real glass windows and a collection of dolls made by his wife, Linda.

When September rolls around, it’s time to repaint the old decorations and check out the machinery that makes his animated Peanuts characters, which are about 3 feet tall, do their thing: skating, trimming the tree, playing in a rock band.

Then on Thanksgiving weekend, with the help of up to 25 volunteers, Jordan assembles the carefully numbered pieces of his display. When they’re done, the house is almost completely obscured by decorations.

But the week before Christmas is when things get really complicated.

Beginning Sunday, a volunteer Santa makes a nightly appearance at the Jordan house, flying in on his sleigh with the help of a 12-foot hydraulic boom. As the kids line up to sit on his lap, they answer questions from two costumed helpers--unaware that Santa is listening in, via a wireless microphone.

A costumed Snoopy also works the crowd, shaking hands and making merry. Several volunteers in jackets marked “Santa’s Helper” watch over the proceedings and do what they can to ease the inevitable traffic jams, keeping in touch with each other via wireless headsets.

Jordan has been decorating his family home for 21 years, starting when he was 15 with a few still figures and a cardboard chimney that blew over the first time the Santa Ana winds came up. “We’ve since learned to handle the weather,” he said with a laugh as he conducted a behind-the-scenes tour of his Christmas display.

He pointed out intricate mechanical designs with the enthusiasm of a high school student who just won a science fair. Jordan, who works as a handyman, lifted a lid on a box behind the stage where his Peanuts musicians play, revealing an old player piano’s motor that drives the characters via separate cables.

“I’m a backstage fanatic,” he confessed as he opened a door that led behind the living room scene where Santa sits. He stopped at a two-way mirror and, pushing a button, rang a bell on a mock telephone on the wall near Santa’s seat. “Let’s see if we can get a kid,” he said.

Sure enough, a boy of about 5 ambled up and answered the ringing phone. “Hi, this is Santa. Have you been a good boy?” Jordan asked the transfixed child. “Santa” got a real rise when he asked about the boy’s yellow scarf.

“How did he know that?” the child asked his mother.

After the boy left, Jordan chuckled and held up the intercom. “Ten bucks at Radio Shack,” he said, grinning.

A longtime neighbor, Melanie Hanley, stopped by to check out this year’s decorations. “I grew up here. Now I bring my own kids,” she said. “It’s part of our family tradition.”

In addition to the local regulars, Jordan says they receive visitors from all over the world, with more than 250 children sitting on Santa’s lap on a typical night during the week before Christmas. Traffic in the neighborhood will slow to a crawl, but because the house is on a major through street, Santa Ana Boulevard, cars seldom come to a complete halt.

Jordan said his costs are minimal. The materials are donated, as is the labor, and the electric bill comes to “a couple hundred dollars.” There are times, though, when Jordan wonders why he puts himself through so much work every year.

“But then the first child giggles and laughs,” he said. “The people give back so much more than we put in.”

Elsewhere in the county, residents are trying to start outdoor holiday-decorating traditions of their own.

“I’d love to live in one of those neighborhoods,” said Lynn Beeler, whose Cape Cod-style home on Eagle Drive in Placentia is decorated like a gingerbread house, with hundreds of twinkling lights on the eaves and in the trees and 32 plywood, 4-foot candy canes decorating the front yard.

The Beelers have lived in the house for 3 years, but so far their idea of holiday spirit doesn’t seem to be rubbing off on the neighborhood. The neighbors love her house, Beeler said, but most of their own houses are still modestly decorated, if at all. “We’d like to see more people get involved,” she said. “Christmas is my favorite time of year, so I like to go all-out for the kids--and me.”

Meanwhile, on Hadrians Crescent, a cul-de-sac in Anaheim Hills, Tom Johnson seems to be having more luck. He has lived in his house there for 5 years, adding more lights and decorations each year. His crowning touch is a ‘40s animated Santa mannequin that he rescued from a department store trash can and restored. The electric Santa now bows up and down from the waist in a lighted upstairs window.

This year, his new next-door neighbor, Jim Ferrell, added what must be the biggest home Christmas decoration in the county: a 1936 Chevrolet fire engine. The relic had been rusting in a side yard, but the Johnsons and the Ferrells moved it to their adjoining front lawns, cleaned it, painted it red with the words “North Pole 1” in white on the side, trimmed it with lights and placed an inflatable Santa in the front seat.

And they’re not done yet. They plan to have a Santa sleigh and reindeer suspended between the two roofs.

“I’ve always been into lights,” Johnson said. “My family has always been really big on holidays.”

He has noticed that homes on the street that haven’t been decorated for years are picking up on his cue. “Once you get started, everyone gets in on the act,” he said.

And word is getting around--people have started driving by just to take a look. “It’s caused quite a commotion,” Ferrell said. “I guess if it makes people smile, it’s worth it.”