HEARTS of the CITY / Exploring attitudes and issues behind the news : More Than Just Santa’s Helpers : La Mirada couple’s dazzling Christmas display thrills onlookers--and raises money for charities.

When most families decorate their homes with Christmas lights, a couple of family members gather ‘round as father plugs in the cord. But when Tom and Chris Wilkinson light up their home, the city closes the street to accommodate the crowds of onlookers.

Welcome to Christmas, Wilkinsons-style, where everything is big.

The couple’s La Mirada front yard is covered with dozens of decorated Christmas trees, two train sets, life-size reindeer look-alikes, sheets of ersatz snow, a miniature ski slope, a Nativity scene and nearly 15,000 lights dangling from almost everything in sight.

Over the years, the yard at 14371 Ramo Drive has become a mecca for ornament lovers looking to be dazzled.

It also has become a fund-raising vehicle for the Wilkinsons’ favorite charity, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

During the lighting ceremony last week, the couple urged onlookers to donate to the organization.

And until Christmas Eve, the Wilkinsons--and occasionally their friends--will dress as Santa and Mrs. Claus and pose for photographs each evening between 7 and 9 p.m.

The couple charges $5 for the snapshots, and all proceeds go to the national organization. Last year, they raised nearly $8,000.

They love donating Christmas cash, but HChris Wilkinson says it’s the sparkle in children’s eyes when they see the house that motivates the couple year after year to gather volunteers and toil over the decorations for more than two months.

Eight-year-old Jordan Abbatiello’s eyes glittered as he stood in a line with hundreds of others to meet Santa--a.k.a. Tom Wilkinson. Moments later, he spotted a costumed Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and darted toward the creature for a huge hug. “It’s cool,” he said, eyeing the yard.

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Neighbor Larry Salazar has attended nine of the lighting ceremonies. He said the display gets better every year, and he always contributes to the charity.

The Wilkinsons’ Christmas tradition began modestly 12 years ago when the couple placed a dozen 3-foot-tall candy canes in the front yard with some oversized lollipops.

After the display was completed, neighbors dropped by to compliment them on the festive decor.

The next year a large plywood sleigh was added to the yard with a sheet of fake snow.

The following year, the yard was plastered with snow-like sheets, and life-size reindeer cutouts were attached to the roof.

Then, as the number of Christmas lights grew in the frontyard, neighbors began dropping checks into the couple’s mailbox to help pay the monthly electric bill, which now exceeds $500 in December. It was then the couple began contributing money to charity.

“I was going to give the money back to my neighbors, but my daughter said, ‘Mom, don’t be stupid, people can use that money,’ ” Wilkinson said.

Since then, the couple has raised thousands of dollars for various organizations. And the number of Christmas doodads in the yard has multiplied.

Chris Wilkinson lives for it.

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But while arranging the decorations is often fun, taking them down after Christmas can be painful.

Wilkinson loves to look out her living room window in December and see all the colorful ornaments gracing her lawn. Taking them all down leaves her with an empty feeling.

Says Wilkinson, “It’s so hard to look out at that empty yard.”