While several residents in South Florida were still preparing their Thanksgiving meals, these residents were already putting up their holiday decorations. Some of these homes were guarded for the holidays with life-sized Nutcracker dolls at their doors, while others had their entrances lined with candy-canes.
These families are not ordinary holiday decorators.
Some do it solely to ring in the holiday spirit.
“It just kind of reminds you of the holiday and the spirit of Christmas,” said Tony Duva, 57, of Biscayne Park, “We do it for all the people who stop and look.”
Others have different reasons for assembling the holiday hoopla.
“I think it adds characters to the house,” said David Catanach, 21, of Country Walk. “It says something about the people living there.”
Here is a glimpse of some of the families who transform their front yards into an enchanted escape for youngsters and adults alike.
Christmas Zoo in Country Walk
It is the place where smiling turtles carry presents on their backs, and Mr. and Mrs. Snowman fly in a dirigible, waving at passersby. It is the place where even a giraffe, a cow and a pig are wearing Santa hats and three red birds up on the tree have green scarves wrapped around their necks. It is the place where Rudolph’s red nose really is glowing as he leads seven other reindeer as they pull Santa on his sled.
It also happens to be David Catanach’s front yard at home in Country Walk.
The 21-year-old architecture student at the University of Florida never consciously intended for all of his Christmas decorations to be animal-themed.
“It just happened by accident,” Catanach said. “First, when I started, I just put up stuff we already had. Then, I started going to Black Friday every year, and I just kind of started collecting so many of them. So I just made it a theme.”
Catanach took over the tradition from his father when he was 12. To this day, he decorates the family’s front yard for Christmas all on his own save for the roof. His father helped him put up Santa and the eight reindeer who pull the plump old man on his way to deliver presents.
The Catanachs’ Christmas-front-yard decorations include 16,000 lights, mostly regular and some LED, seven snowmen, two snowwomen, 12 reindeer, a couple of angels, and a Christmas tree. Several white dogs, some holding presents in their mouths, and a bear balancing on a ‘NOEL’ sign complete the zoo theme.
The newest addition this year and Catanach’s favorite piece so far is a candy-cane patterned mailbox with a door that opens automatically every couple of seconds to reveal a letter to Santa.
It took Catanach 12 days to finish his display. On Sunday, exactly one week before Christmas day, he and his dad climbed up on their home’s roof to put the final touches there as families stopped by and took photos of their children around the decorations.
That, Catanach says, is his favorite part of Christmas and the decorations.
“The most fun parts about it are spending time with my family and also how that car just went by really slowly,” Catanach said. “I really enjoy it when people slow down and take a minute out of their day to enjoy the lights.”
Inflatable Christmas at Biscayne Park
More than a week before Christmas, Maryann Duva got in her car and pulled out of her driveway at 6:30 a.m., headed to work.
RSS
My Yahoo