Homes for the Holidays : Touring the Lights Fantastic in Spirited O.C. Neighborhoods

It can be as simple as candles set in sand-filled bags glowing softly along the edges of neighborhood walkways. Or as elaborate as a candy-cane street scene with an animated Santa, sleigh and full team of reindeer.

Many homes in Orange County are dressed for the holidays, but in some neighborhoods the decorators are not content to simply plug in a string of blinking lights and hang a wreath on the front door. Rather, they approach the task as a group mission--beginning to decorate the outside of their homes, en masse, before Thanksgiving is over.

“As soon as the last bite of turkey goes into our mouths, we start. The husbands are up on the roofs; the wives are out in the yards,” Trish Grencik of Tustin said of the display in her Basswood Circle neighborhood.

In Yorba Linda, artist Rod Anderson works with his neighbors each Christmas to come up with additions to the wooden cutout figures that adorn most of the homes in Windemere Village.

In Rancho Santa Margarita, dozens of neighbors band together on Via Lantana to string lights and build the outdoor scenes that transform the street into Candy Cane Lane each year.

In Mission Viejo, the ornate Christmas decorations in one housing tract stay with each house through successions of owners, guaranteeing continuation of the neighborhood tradition.

On the Basswood cul-de-sac in Tustin, the neighbors have been going all out for five years, ever since one of the Grenciks’ daughters, Stacey, decided to wrap a parkway tree in foil and put a red bow on it.

The next year, all of Basswood had decorated parkway trees and lighted houses. Peer pressure sort of drew would-be holdouts into joining in, Trish Grencik said.

Now, in addition to the bows on the trees, there are sleighs, trains and gingerbread men. Giant wrapped presents sit in the Grenciks’ front yard, replacing last year’s eight-foot-tall gingerbread man. The gingerbread man is now on the roof of their two-story house, sharing space with a painfully constructed star made of lights.

Don Grencik fell off the roof and broke his elbow trying to put the star together this year.

“But nothing stops us. Christmas must go on,” his wife said. She is grateful that her husband’s injuries weren’t worse. But after everyone left the accident scene, she did jokingly ask him if this meant he wasn’t going to finish that star. (With help from her son and a son-in-law, the job got done.)

Basswood Circle residents like to see visitors admiring their handiwork but say they really decorate for themselves. It’s a neighborhood thing. They enjoy sitting around outdoor fire pits in the chill evenings, visiting and watching the sightseers drive by.

“As neighbors, we wave to each other all year, but at Christmas we really talk to each other,” Trish Grencik said.

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Here is a guide to seeing the holiday displays in 14 Orange County neighborhoods and at two unusual individual homes:

Lakefront in Yorba Linda

The 120 homes that line the one-mile perimeter of artificial Eastlake in Yorba Linda have been lighting up since 1987, said homeowner Sue Coventon. The community even holds North Orange County’s own boat parade, featuring the decorated and lighted paddle boats and small sailboats of the Eastlake residents. The hourlong parade will begin at 5:30 tonight and Sunday.

Until the lights come down Jan. 1, visitors can also walk or drive the streets of the Eastlake Shores development and see homes draped in thousands of lights, some with elaborate Christmas scenes in the front yards as well.

Getting there: Take the Riverside (91) Freeway to Imperial Highway, head north to Esperanza, turn east to Fairmont Boulevard and then go north again to Paseo de las Palomas. Turn east to Vista del Mar, then north, and you are on the boundary of Eastlake Shores.

Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. through New Year’s Eve.

Fantasy in Windemere

Using wood cutouts and lights, residents of Yorba Linda’s Windemere Village transform their neighborhood into a fantasy that includes a Scottish house, a candy house and a Night Before Christmas house. Even Disney characters get into the act--there’s a Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck house. Reindeer, snowmen and candy canes abound in the 42-house tract. On Sunday a Christmas tree is scheduled to go up in the parkway, decorated with 42 gingerbread men--each one bearing the name of a neighbor.

Neighbors such as former commercial artist Rod Anderson routinely help one another, and Anderson also built a plywood snowman to mark the entrance to the tract, said resident Joan DeMato.

Another unusual twist in this neighborhood: Decorations extend to several oil wells still standing in the development.

Getting there: Take Rose Drive (it becomes Tustin Avenue in Orange) to Buena Vista Avenue, turn east to Windemere Drive, then turn north into the tract.

Hours: Dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas.

Bright in Brea

Flower Hill Street in Brea offers an elaborate lighting display, including illuminated figures--reindeer, angels and trees--and several houses are even more extensively decorated. Decorating usually starts the week before Thanksgiving. Residents have been enthusiastically lighting up the neighborhood for about six years. One new resident rented a cherry-picker to string his lights on high this year.

Getting there: Take the Orange (57) Freeway to Birch Street, go east to Flower Hill, turn left.

Hours: Dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas.

Candlelight in Fullerton

The Sunny Ranch neighborhood in Fullerton will again shun electric lights and other contemporary trappings of the season for two nights as it lights up in a very old-fashioned way, with luminaria--votive candles resting on a bed of sand inside brown paper bags. The lighted candles glow a soft golden-brown through the paper.

Tradition has it that luminaria lining a front walk let the Holy Family know that there is room for Mary and her child at that house.

Sunny Ranch, with 51 houses, will be lighted Sunday, Dec. 19, and Monday, Dec. 20. About 6,000 luminaria will be used, said resident Phyllis Valla.

Getting there: Take Harbor Boulevard to La Entrada Place and turn west (follow posted directions). It is the only way in and out of the tract.

Hours: 6-9 p.m. Dec. 19 and 20.

Aglow in La Palma

The houses on the 7300 and 7400 blocks of Dallas Drive in La Palma vie annually with the homes around Fountain Valley’s Dahlia Circle for the informal title of Orange County’s most elaborately decorated neighborhood.

Work started on Dallas at Thanksgiving, and now the homes are draped in thousands of strands of lights while animated Christmas characters, candy canes, ice-skating elves, reindeer, mangers and other flora and fauna of the season fill up most yards.

Some families play recorded music, and visitors might catch one family of musicians that stands outside and plays Christmas songs on guitars and brass instruments. There’s no set schedule, though. It’s just “when the spirit moves them,” said resident Jan Horton.

Residents say they do it all for the smiles from passersby.

Getting there: Take the Riverside (91) Freeway to the Orangethorpe Avenue off-ramp, go a half-block west to Walker Avenue, turn south for about a mile to Houston Avenue. Turn west onto Houston; Dallas Drive is the first cross street.

Hours: Dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas.

Special request: Residents ask that drivers use parking lights only.

Trio in Cypress

Decorating on the 9900 block of Denni Street in Cypress began seven years ago when Robert and Maria Fisher hoisted a plywood Santa onto their rooftop. “It all kind of snowballed from there,” Maria Fisher said.

There are only three houses on this stretch of Denni, but they burn enough electricity at night to put Hoover Dam’s dynamo on overtime. The lights outline rooftops, Christmas scenes with cutout characters and a host of other decorations. “We all add some new thing each year,” Fisher said.

Getting there: Take Ball Road to Denni Street, turn north and the three houses are at the corner, facing Veterans Park.

Hours: Dusk to 9:30 p.m. through Jan. 1.

Afloat in Huntington Beach

The Huntington Harbour development at the north edge of Huntington Beach is built on a series of canals, so people there have boats. And at Christmas that means boat parades and lots of lights.

The Huntington Harbour boat parade will be held tonight and Sunday, starting at 5:15 p.m.

From Monday through Dec. 22, the community’s Philharmonic Committee sponsors a boat tour of the canals and their elaborately decorated waterfront homes. Tickets, $8.50 Monday through Thursday and $9.50 Friday through Sunday ($5 for children), must be purchased in advance. Phone orders are taken at (714) 840-7542. Proceeds from the 45-minute cruise go to the Orange County Philharmonic Society and to help fund music programs at public and private schools in Huntington Beach.

The myriad homes in the community that have laid on decorations with a lavish and sometimes professional hand are also viewable from land. You can drive or walk, detouring up the side streets leading to the canals to view the decorated waterfront facades of the houses.

Getting there: Take Warner Avenue west to Pacific Coast Highway, then go north about a mile to Coral Cay Lane and turn right. Coral Cay leads onto one of the six separate “islands” that make up Huntington Harbour. A good map of the area will show you routes to the others.

Hours: Dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas.

On Foot in Fountain Valley

One of the most lavishly decorated neighborhoods in the county, the Dahlia tract in Fountain Valley features 75 or more homes in an area bordered by Heil and Edinger avenues and Brookhurst and Bushard streets.

So popular is the display of lights, characters and seasonal themes that city police began erecting barricades several years ago and allow only foot traffic into the tract from 5 to 10 p.m.

Getting there: Take surface streets or the San Diego (405) freeway to Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. From the corner of Edinger Avenue and Brookhurst Street, go south on Brookhurst about one-third mile to Thistle Avenue, entrance to the tract, and turn west.

Hours: 5-10 p.m. through Christmas.

Tribute in Santa Ana

For 32 years, Rosario Velarde erected an elaborate Christmas offering in the front yard of her home on East Warner Avenue in Santa Ana. Each year she spent two months on hands and knees working on the display; last year, at age 74, she labored while tethered to an oxygen tank as cancer ate away at her lungs.

Velarde died in September, but her husband, Joaquin, their daughter and numerous grandchildren have vowed to erect the multilevel panoramic layout once again this year in tribute to her indomitable spirit.

The Nativity story offers 30 scenes from the life of Christ and includes more than 500 clay figures the Velardes collected over the years.

The display covers the entire width of the front yard and rises from the ground on a terraced platform to a height of about five feet. It includes miniature waterfalls, handmade wooden houses, a sandy desert and enough lights to keep a portable generator gulping almost eight gallons of gasoline each evening.

Getting there: From the intersection of Warner Avenue and Main Street in Santa Ana go two blocks east on Warner. Velarde’s home, at 219 E. Warner, is on the north side of the street.

Hours: All day, until 9:30 p.m., through Jan. 6.

Singular in Orange

Randy and Jennifer Gates’ front yard on Waverly Street in Orange qualifies as a whole neighborhood. The elaborate display--which actually spills into a neighbor’s yard, annually draws 10,000 to 15,000 visitors.

Gates, a builder by trade, says he just can’t stop. He spends about 150 hours spread over the six months before Christmas getting things ready and starts installing the display--with help from a lot of his neighbors--around Thanksgiving.

This year’s attractions include ice skaters on a lake, three large-scale trains, a manger scene, a candy cane lane, animated elves, a 13-foot lighted tree atop the house, several hundred strings of Christmas lights, a toy shop and myriad other figurines, including a computerized Santa’s order-processing scene with an elf busily entering children’s toy orders into a glowing computer.

And this weekend and next, Gates said, a live Santa will be on hand each evening to greet children.

The family puts out a wishing well each year and donates the coins and bills that are tossed into it to a local program for the speech- and hearing-impaired. Last year, more than $2,000 was turned over to the Speech and Learning Center in Buena Park. This year, Gates said, proceeds will go to the Orange Unified School District’s Special Education Program.

Getting there: Take Tustin Street to Collins Avenue, go west on Collins to Waverly Street and turn left; or take Glassell Street or Cambridge Street to Collins, turn east to Waverly and then turn right.

Hours: 5-10 p.m. through Jan. 1.

Traditional in Old Orange

Old Towne Orange’s historic plaza greets the season with a towering Santa, gigantic snowman and a traditional Nativity scene each year. And the municipal decorating spirit spreads, with houses aglitter throughout the mile-square section of town.

Perhaps the largest concentration is on a two-block stretch of South Grand Street, where until just after Christmas almost every home in the 300 and 400 blocks will be decked in holiday lights. It’s not as revved up a display as you’ll see in many other areas, but driving the broad street with its dozens of old-fashioned bungalows and Craftsman cottages all aglow can be a relaxing interlude.

Getting there: Take the Garden Grove (22) Freeway to the Glassell Street off-ramp, go north on Glassell to La Veta Avenue, turn east for two short blocks to Grand and then drive north.

Hours: Dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas.

Main Street Tustin

The 300, 400 and and 500 blocks of West Main Street in Tustin provide another glimpse of what old Orange County looked like. Many of the homes were built in the late 1800s.

Elaborate outdoor Christmas displays featuring lights, manger scenes and Christmas figures light up most of the more than 40 homes in the three-block stretch each evening.

Getting there: From the intersection of Newport Avenue and Main Street in Tustin drive west down Main about five blocks and you’ll hit the 300 block of West Main.

Hours: Dusk to 10 p.m. until Jan. 1.

Neighborly in Tustin

The lights on Basswood Circle in Tustin are on nightly, and the Grenciks and their neighbors will be out on their front porches to enjoy the string of visitors.

Getting there: Take Walnut Avenue east to Raintree Lane, turn south two blocks to Basswood, which is on the left.

Hours: 5:30 to 10 p.m. through Jan. 1.

On High in Newport

The Newport Harbor Boat Parade gets the press and most of the crowds, but there are other displays of Christmas lights in this oceanfront city. One is high above the water at the entrance to Harbor Ridge, a gated community in the hills above Corona del Mar.

Each year, the Harbor Ridge Women’s Club goes all out to decorate the entrance to the community.

A life-size sleigh with a Santa and packages, a lighted and decorated tree and three reindeer--all decorated with colored lights--make up the centerpiece, said club member Beverly Stern. All the topiary trees and bushes at the entrance area are garlanded with Christmas lights, and a series of four-foot candlesticks add more holiday glitter. The guardhouse at the community entrance is decked out in lights, fake snow and garlands to look like a Christmas cottage.

The decorating has been Harbor Ridge’s seasonal gift to the city for 13 consecutive years.

Getting there: Take MacArthur Boulevard to San Joaquin Hills Road or San Miguel Drive. From San Joaquin head south to Spyglass Hill Road and turn left; from San Miguel head north to Spyglass and turn right. From either direction, follow Spyglass up the hill to the Harbor Ridge entrance.

Hours: Dusk until dawn, through Jan. 2.

Merry in Mission Viejo

For the past 18 years, neighbors in the 30-home Baja Oso development in Mission Viejo have turned their five-street tract into a mini North Pole. Decorations that have been created through the years include elaborate lighting displays, cut-out characters and other trim, and they usually stay with the houses when they are sold so the new residents can continue the display.

Getting there: Take the San Diego Freeway to Oso Parkway and head east on Oso to Marguerite Parkway. Turn south for about two miles to Mesilla, turn west (the only way you can go on Mesilla) and you are in Baja Oso.

Hours: Dusk to 9:30 p.m. through Christmas.

Sweet in Santa Margarita

Rancho Santa Margarita’s Via Lantana will be South Orange County’s Candy Cane Lane for the seventh year in a row.

Front yards on the street sport elves, giant lollipops, a gingerbread girl, candy canes--one of them 20-feet tall--and an assortment of Santas, snowmen and reindeer. One homeowner promises to have an animated Santa, sleigh and reindeer team in working order by this evening.

Getting there: Take the San Diego Freeway to the Oso Parkway off-ramp; Oso to Antonio Parkway and Antonio north across Santa Margarita Parkway to Laguna. Then turn right on Laguna, left on Las Flores, right on Allyssum, right on Carrissa (nobody said this would be easy!), right on Larkspur, left on Felecia and, finally, left onto Via Lantana.

Hours: 5-9 p.m. through New Year’s Eve.