It’s a Wonderful Light : Take a Tour to Find Houses, Yards That Glow in a Fine Show of Christmas Spirit

Looking for some Christmas spirit? It’s alive and bright in Orange County’s neighborhoods. It’s on Flower Hill Street in Brea, where neighbors use glittering lights to outline broad rooftops, and in a modest front yard in Santa Ana, where one woman’s lifetime collection of 500 clay figures depicts scenes in the life of Christ.

It can be found in lavishly lit waterfront displays in Huntington Harbour that include animated figures and, more often than not, the homeowner’s boat as well. And in a movie-themed lighting fantasy that uses 20,000 lights at 14 Pheasant Lane in Aliso Viejo.

It’s in a 20-foot-tall candy cane in Rancho Santa Margarita, and in charming wood cutouts of Disney characters, snowmen and reindeer that have sprouted in a Yorba Linda housing tract.

For Christmas spirit pure and simple, there’s a Fullerton neighborhood where the sidewalks are lined with glowing luminaria, votive candles nesting in sand-filled paper bags.

Some of these neighborhoods are small--there are only three homes on a Cypress street we’re including here--and some encompass whole housing tracts. But they all have one thing in common. Those who live there banded together and did their decorating on the outside, creating a kind of collective Christmas card for the rest of us.

All you need to get the message is a map book and that Southern California necessity, a car. To help you find the locations, we’re including the corresponding page and grid numbers from the 1994 Thomas Guide map book. Plan to spend at least two nights cruising these festive neighborhoods.

It’ll boost your spirits.

North County

Brea’s Flower Hill Street neighborhood offers elaborate lighting displays and illuminated figures. Several of the two dozen or more decorated homes are so brightly lit that sunglasses might not be out of the question. To get there, take the 57 Freeway to Imperial Highway and turn east to Kraemer Boulevard. Enter the tract by turning north onto Flower Hill. Hours are dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas. (Page 709, F-7.)

Yorba Linda’s Eastlake Shores development is North County’s answer to those coastal boat parades. Lighted paddle boats and small sailboats parade around the man-made lake tonight and tomorrow, beginning at 7 each evening. You also can walk or drive for a view of sophisticated decorating on the 120 homes that line the lake. The water’s reflection of the lights doubles the effect. To get there, take the Riverside Freeway to Imperial Highway, head north to Esperanza Road, turn east to Fairmont Boulevard. Turn north on Fairmont to Pas De Las Palomas and turn east again to the boundary of Eastlake Shores. Hours are 5 to 10 p.m. through New Year’s Eve. (Page 740, F-5.)

A plywood Santa will guide you to another Yorba Linda neighborhood, Windemere Village, where wooden cutouts and lights adorn the 42 homes. There’s a Scottish house, a candyland house and a night-before-Christmas house. Disney characters, reindeer and snowmen are represented too. The neighbors decorate a communal tree in the parkway. To get there, take Rose Drive (which becomes Tustin Avenue in Orange) to Buena Vista Avenue, turn east to Windemere Drive and north into the tract. Hours are dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas. (Page 739, H-5.)

Fullerton’s Sunny Ranch neighborhood will be alight with luminarias Dec. 18 and 19. About 6,000 of the paper-bag candles will line the walks of the 50-home tract. To get there, take Harbor Boulevard to La Entrada Place, turn west. It is the only way in and out of the tract. The candles are lit at dusk each evening. (Page 738, G-2.)

Central County

Randy and Jennifer Gateses’ front yard in Orange is a single-house extravaganza that draws 10,000 to 15,000 visitors each year. It features a mind-boggling Christmas scene that also takes up two-thirds of the next-door neighbor’s yard and includes a toy shop, skaters on a lake, three large-scale trains, a candy cane lane, animated elves and a mural on the garage door.

To get there, take Tustin Avenue to Collins Avenue, go west on Collins to Waverly Street and turn south; or take Glassell Street or Cambridge Street to Collins, turn east to Waverly and then turn south. You can’t miss the Gateses’ place, which is just down the street on the right. Hours are 5 to 10 p.m. through Jan. 1. (Page 799, H-2.)

While you’re in the neighborhood, check out the 500 block of North Waverly, an Orange cul-de-sac where every house is brightly lit. This part of the street can be reached by taking Collins to Cambridge then turning south to Walnut Avenue. Turn east and then north onto Waverly. (Page 799, H-3.)

For a look at a cozier, less glitzy style of decorating, tour Orange’s Old Towne historic district. The plaza, at Chapman Avenue and Glassell Street, will take you back to a warmer, gentler time with its Santa, snowman and Nativity scene. Vintage homes throughout the mile-square area are decorated, but the best stretch is the 300 and 400 blocks of South Grand Street. To get there, take the Garden Grove Freeway to the Glassell Street off-ramp, go north on Glassell to La Veta Avenue, turn east for two short blocks to Grand and drive north. Hours are dusk to 10 p.m, through Christmas. (Page 799, G-5.)

West Main Street in Tustin, with its homes built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, offers another look at Christmases past. Manger scenes and Christmas figures adorn the 300, 400 and 500 blocks. To get there from the intersection of Newport Avenue and Main Street, drive west on Main to the 300 block. Hours are dusk to 10 p.m. through Jan. 1. (Page 830, A-3 and B-3.)

Tustin’s Basswood Circle boasts decorated parkway trees, rooftop and yard scenes with sleighs, trains and gingerbread men. Hours are 5:30 to 10 p.m. through Jan. 1. From Newport or Redhill avenues, take Walnut Avenue east to Raintree, turn south two blocks to Basswood. (Page 830, C-7.)

A few blocks away in Tustin, on Caper Tree Drive, Domenico Masdea has transformed his two-car garage into an elaborate Christmas tableau. Red lava made out of aluminum foil seeps from a volcano, and water gushes out of two miniature waterfalls. A Nativity scene and hundreds of Christmas figurines constructed by Masdea adorn the sand- and snow-covered area, while recorded sounds of thunder, rain and birds play in the background. From about 5 to 11 p.m., Masdea stands outside his front door greeting visitors. The display will be up until the third week of January. To get there, take Raintree south to Tree Place and then to Caper Tree Drive. Watch for the “Visit the Nativity” sign. (Page 830, C-7.)

In Santa Ana, the family of the late Rosario Velardes is reconstructing the Christmas offering she made each year in her front yard at 219 E. Warner Ave. The display uses more than 500 clay figures the family has collected and depicts 30 scenes from Christ’s life with miniature waterfalls, handmade wooden houses, a sandy desert and lights. The multilevel panoramic display is the width of the front yard and rises to about five feet on a terraced platform. The family is still working on the display and hopes to have it finished by this weekend, or Wednesday at the latest. Hours are all day until 9:30 p.m. through Jan. 6. From the intersection of Warner Avenue and Main Street in Santa Ana, go two blocks east on Warner. The home is on the north side of the street. (Page 829, E-7.)

To turn up the voltage on your tour, journey to the Dahlia tract in Fountain Valley. The 75-home tract bordered by Heil and Edinger avenues and Brookhurst and Bushard streets truly lights up the sky. To get there, find Mile Square Park. From the corner of Edinger Avenue and Brookhurst Street, go south on Brookhurst about one-third mile to Thistle Avenue and turn west. Thistle is the entrance to the tract. This popular display often is open only to foot traffic. Hours are 5 to 10 p.m. through Christmas. (Page 828, D-6 and E-6.)

La Palma’s Dallas Drive neighborhood is just as elaborately decorated as the Dahlia tract. Thousands of strands of lights drape the houses; recorded Christmas music plays, and animated Christmas characters do their stuff. To get there, take the Riverside Freeway to the Orangethorpe Avenue off-ramp, go a half-block west to Walker Street, turn south for about a mile to Houston Avenue, turn west on to Houston. Dallas Drive is the first cross street. Hours are dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas. (Page 767, D-2.)

Another high-wattage stop is the 9900 block of Denni Street in Cypress. There are only three houses here, but they burn enough electricity for a whole neighborhood. To get there from the intersection of Valley View Street and Ball Road, take Ball west to Denni and turn north; the three houses are at the corner, facing Veterans Park. Hours: dusk to 9:30 p.m. through Jan. 1. (Page 797, B-1.)

Coastal Orange County

Luxury homes in Huntington Harbour are often professionally decorated with a lavish use of lights. The homes can be viewed from land, but the Orange County Philharmonic Society sponsors boat tours of the canals that include narration.

A boat parade will be today and Sunday beginning at 5:30 p.m. The Cruise of Lights canal tours will run from Wednesday through Dec. 22 beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $8.50 for adults Monday through Thursday and $9.50 Friday through Sunday ($5 for children). Tickets must be purchased in advance, and phone orders are taken at (714) 840-7542. Proceeds benefit the society’s school music program.

To get there from the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Warner Avenue, go north about a mile to Coral Cay Lane and turn right. Coral Cay leads to one of six separate “islands” that make up Huntington Harbour. Hours are dusk to 10 p.m. through Christmas. (Page 857, A-1; Page 827 A-6 and 7 and B-6 and 7)

The entrance to Harbor Ridge, a gated community in the hills above Corona del Mar, is worth a trip up the hill. The Harbor Ridge Women’s Club turns the guardhouse into a Christmas cottage with lights, faux snow and garland. There’s a life-size sleigh with a Santa, a lighted and decorated tree and decorated topiary and a series of four-foot candlesticks.

To get there, take MacArthur Boulevard to San Miguel Drive. From San Miguel, head north to Spyglass Hill Road and turn east. Follow Spyglass up the hill to the Harbor Ridge entrance. (Page 889, H-7.)

South County

In Aliso Viejo, residents Carlos Polanco and Kenton Faust have created a one-house decorating blow-out at 14 Pheasant Lane that makes passersby shake their heads in amazement.

Faust came up with the design for the display last year using the an untraditional “Nightmare Before Christmas” movie theme with 11,000 Christmas lights. This year, the display has grown to more than 20,000 lights that cover the two-story house and much of the front yard. A giant Canary Island palm is lit in eight different sections that go on in stages, like an old Las Vegas casino sign. The entire roof is covered with lights and topped with a three-dimensional Christmas tree of lights.

What about the light bill? Polanco said it’s not too bad because mostly mini-lights are used. Last year, he calculated his electric bill was about $150 higher than normal. This year he’s expecting it to be about $200 more. Polanco and Faust are still working on the design, and you’ll probably see them out there adding even more lights.

Take El Toro Road south from the San Diego Freeway to Aliso Creek Road. Head east on Aliso Creek to Westwing, then turn north. Pheasant Lane is the first left. Hours are dusk to 11 p.m. through New Year’s Day. (Page 921, C-2)

The 30-home Baja Oso development in Mission Viejo becomes a mini-North Pole each year with lighting displays, cutout characters and other trimmings.

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 and you are in Baja Oso. Hours are dusk until 9:30 p.m. through Christmas. (Page 922, C-5.)

Take a trip down Candy Cane Lane on Via Lantana in Rancho Santa Margarita. Elves, giant lollipops, assorted Santas, snowmen and reindeer line the front yards along with candy canes, one of them 20-feet tall.

Take the San Diego Freeway to the Oso Parkway off-ramp, Oso to Antonio Parkway and Antonio north across Santa Margarita Parkway to Vereda Laguna. Turn east on Vereda Laguna, north on Las Flores to Via Carissa, east to Allyssum and then go north. Follow the street as it circles around. It becomes Via Felicia heading south. Via Lantana intersects. Hours are 5 to 9 p.m. through New Year’s Eve. (Page 893, C-1.)