Vandals Throw Shadow Over Christmas : Decorations: Discouraged by damage to displays inside and outside his home, resident has eliminated some of the spectacular show.

For the past four years, Gary Endicott has encased his Newbury Park home with enough tiny, blinking Christmas lights to make the whole block glow.

Scores of children from throughout the county have flocked to his frontyard for a glimpse inside his window to behold a spectacular display--moving elves making toys, Mr. and Mrs. Claus carrying candles and mechanical skiers gliding down snow-capped slopes.

But despite the increasing number of spectators, this year will be his final attempt at spreading Christmas cheer, he said.

Discouraged by vandals, Endicott last week dismantled more than 16 animated figures housed in a front bedroom and drew the blinds. He then created a new centerpiece for his make-believe winter wonderland at 283 Baxter St.: A huge poster declaring an end to his merry holiday display.

“We deeply regret the actions of thoughtless people, who obviously do not know the true meaning of Christmas, ruining things for those who enjoyed [our display],” the sign reads.

Now, only the decorations that hang on the outside of the house remain, including decorated miniature Christmas trees and the glowing outlines of Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Since the decorations went up shortly after Thanksgiving, vandals have lighted firecrackers under a miniature village containing animated Walt Disney characters, ripped four-foot foam candy canes off the fences and stolen handfuls of bulbs from the dozens of strings of Christmas lights.

But the last straw, said Endicott, was when vandals shot three bullets from a pellet gun last week at the mechanical dolls moving inside the bedroom, leaving three one-inch holes in the window. At first, the family thought the holes were caused by shots from a firearm. It cost them more than $150 to replace the broken glass.

“It is not the expense,” he said. “Just the total frustration. My wife was absolutely traumatized to think someone had shot inside of our house with a gun.”

Once the sign went up last week, handfuls of passersby sent cards or knocked on the Endicotts’ front door to express their disappointment over losing the display.

On Friday, Lisa Szoke drove two miles from her Newbury Park home to personally hand the Endicotts a thank you card.

“Every year, for tradition’s sake, this was our first stop,” she said. “When we saw the sign last night, we were just shocked that somebody could do this, and Newbury Park is such a small place, it doesn’t seem like this sort of thing would happen here.”

But neighbors say that vandalism of Christmas displays is becoming more and more common, forcing some to forgo the extra festive touches they once added outside their homes.

Mike Miernicki, a neighbor who saw a group of about six young men tearing the decorative candy canes from the Endicotts’ fence and taking some of his own Christmas decorations at 3 a.m. about two weeks ago, now keeps a giant electrical candle his parents once used to decorate their frontyard safely in his garage.

“For years, they always had this outside in their frontyard,” he said. “It’s only cheap plastic, but it has become a family heirloom and I don’t want to see it destroyed.”

Wilma Kernan, another neighbor of the Endicotts, said children in the area have been most disappointed over the loss of the animated decorations.

“It lit up the whole block and the kids really enjoyed it,” she said.