Snoopy House finds temporary shelter during pandemic among nonprofit toy drive at Orange County IKEA
Since 1966, Costa Mesa residents have celebrated the holidays by visiting Snoopy House — a Christmas-themed homage to Charles Schulz’s comic strip “Peanuts” that stood for decades at a local residence before moving to the lawn outside City Hall in 2011.
Once there, the installation morphed into a civic event that featured free photos with Santa Claus, train rides and live performances and took on a life of its own as attendance expanded to around 15,000 visitors, according to Dane Bora, a public affairs manager for the city of Costa Mesa.
“Since it came to City Hall, people have come up to us and said they haven’t missed a year in 24 years, or even 40 years,” Bora said. “There are a lot of diehard Snoopy House fans who want to keep that tradition alive.”
With this year’s coronavirus pandemic in full swing, however, the future of Snoopy House was looking uncertain — until fate, and maybe a touch of holiday magic, intervened.
City officials were racking their brains to figure out how they might present a COVID-19-safe event that complied with restrictions against large gatherings at the same time local nonprofit Power of One Foundation was organizing a toy drive for area families in need.
The two groups were put in touch and a plan began to take shape.
Now, several of the Snoopy House characters and sets have been incorporated into a drive-through toy collection and giveaway event at the Costa Mesa IKEA that opened Wednesday and runs through Friday. Registration for the event filled up days beforehand.
Shawnee Witt, vice chair and operations director for the Power of One Foundation, has helped organize food giveaways at IKEA’s massive parking lot during the pandemic that have helped feed thousands of local residents.
Community leaders coordinated a massive food giveaway operation in the IKEA Costa Mesa parking lot Thursday.
The organization was planning a “Winter Wonderland” drive-through light display and toy drive when the subject of Snoopy House came up. It seemed like the perfect addition.
“It’s a big parking lot, and we can fill it up with lots of things for kids to look at,” Witt said. “What we didn’t realize was there’s a cult following for Snoopy House. This is legendary in Costa Mesa, so it’s been a really cool development.”
The legend began in 1966, when the family of then-Costa Mesa Mayor Willard Jordan decided to start making decorations for a Christmas display outside their Santa Ana Avenue home. Their son, Jim, was just 14 when he began crafting the figures.
“My dad was an architect, and my mom was creative,” recalled Jim Jordan, now 68. “We had a sheet of plywood and an old beat-up jigsaw — and that’s how it started.”
The cast of characters at Snoopy House grew over the years, and so did the crowds, as Jordan carried on the family tradition at the family home. Friends got involved in production and maintenance, an effort that occupied at least six months out of the year.
“As we got more involved, it became more complex,” he said.
The spectacle grew in popularity over the next 45 years as new generations came round. But in 2011, following some financial difficulties brought on by the recession, the Jordan family decided to bequeath the collection to the city.
Jordan stayed on for several years more, working to maintain and restore the figures before the city took on the task. The Costa Mesa resident acknowledged Snoopy House is different now than it was in its heyday but said he’s grateful it’s been allowed to continue for so long.
“It’s the greatest joy of my life, outside of my wife and daughter,” he added. “Although it’s nowhere near what it used to be, I’m pleased it can still bring some smiles to people — I’m happy about that.”
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