Aglow With Power of the Season

Asking retailers to tone down the gleaming snowflakes, glowing snowmen and myriad twinkle lights in the weeks before Christmas to spare the state’s overtaxed energy grid may be environmentally correct. Some would say it smacks of Ebenezer Scrooge.

In fact, that Christmas killjoy was invoked Friday evening as Fashion Island in Newport Beach prepared to light what’s billed as the nation’s tallest decorated tree, in the outdoor mall’s main courtyard.

Thousands of parents and children, buffered against the chill by woolen coats, hats, gloves and mufflers, thronged the courtyard as the magnate of the fictional Newport Electric Company was introduced. He emphatically refused to trip the switch on 17,000 miniature lights hanging from the 115-foot, 20,000-pound evergreen.

But in Dickensian fashion, Scrooge saw the error of his ways and let there be light. The crowd cheered.

“People want to be in the holiday spirit,” said Nina Robinson, marketing director for Fashion Island. “They see the tree and say, ‘God, how beautiful it is.’ They love it--the festivities and, no pun intended, the energy it creates.”

Energy consumption during the holiday season adds the equivalent of a nuclear power plant’s output to statewide energy consumption, said Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the California Independent System Operator, the agency that schedules power for most of the state.

That consumption still falls short of summer energy usage. But with energy plants powering down for maintenance, and with the steady increase of electric consumption, the keepers of California’s power grid will be watching closely as homeowners begin plugging in those icicle lights and yard displays after Thanksgiving.

Retailers and others already are powering up their displays. South Coast Plaza has decked itself out. Seen from the San Diego Freeway, the headquarters of Trinity Broadcast Network in Costa Mesa glows as the holidays approach.

Easing up on wattage is not what people want, retailers say.

At Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, 1,000 miniature lights encircle the popular, high-end nursery and design headquarters. Inside, about 75 canary pines and other Christmas trees are decorated with lights. Why? Well, for the last 20 years or so, people come not just to shop, but to “walk around with their families,” said Lisa Featherstone, the company’s marketing manager.

“We certainly use a lot more energy now than in the summer,” Featherstone said. “But doing this is something so ingrained in our culture. If we took this away, it would disappoint a lot of people. It’s a tradition in Orange County.”

Gayle Mann agreed. The Fountain Valley woman has seen television ads asking people to put their decorations and lights up late and take them down early this season, and she believes in saving energy.

“But this time of year is so joyous and happy, I don’t think people much care,” said Mann, who with her husband Jim and son Wesley, was among the thousands joining the countdown for Fashion Island’s tree at 6:25 p.m. Friday.

“You don’t really think about energy during Christmas,” added Jane Applegarth of England, who nonetheless expressed amazement at how early the holiday decorating begins in the United States. “You want things to be festive.”