Rix House Phoenix Az Christmas Decorations
In Arizona, a Bright Christmas
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December 12, 1991
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IT BEGAN on Halloween, when the trick-or-treaters arrived at Frank Calph's house. Instead of gap-toothed jack o'lanterns and leering skeletons hanging about, they saw snowmen and snowwomen playing fiddles and trumpets, elves and angels scurrying about, a river cascading down a mountain and 20,000 twinkling lights.
No time warp swept the kids into the wrong holiday. It was just that Mr. Calph was a little ahead of schedule with this year's tribute to Christmas. He is the unofficial king of lights in a city where Christmas decorations have grown to phenomenal proportions in recent years.
Perhaps it has something to do with the decidedly un-Yuletidelike landscape of palm trees and saguaros. Whatever the reason, residents of this desert city and some of its suburbs are so obsessed with Christmas that they start thinking about it in July, when the temperature is 100 and up.
Some people quit their jobs for a couple of months to work full time on decorating their homes inside and out. One couple bought their house because it would make a good backdrop for Christmas ornaments.
The decorated houses are so eagerly awaited that the city's two daily newspapers print maps showing the lights maps, like maps to the homes of Hollywood stars.
"You're not talking about the standard everyday lights on a saguaro tree and a Santa," said Linda Vachata, the assistant features editor of The Arizona Republic, which has mapped the homes for five Christmases. "We're talking construction and 50,000-light extravaganzas," Miss Vachata went on. "You're looking at a person's house, but it looks like Macy's windows."
She said some readers call the paper in August to find out when the maps are to be published so they can plan their Christmas parties around tours of the homes. "Thousands of people drive through the neighborhoods every year," said Chris Lavelle, the features editor of The Phoenix Gazette. And thousands are willing to pay the $1 fees to enter yards for close-up looks or engage tour buses to see these displays.
Although the newspapers list 70 to more than 100 residences, only about a dozen would outshine Rockefeller Center. Most of them started out with several hundred lights, a wreath, perhaps, and Santa Claus knickknacks, and then, each year, the collection grew.
With 62,000 lights (not counting his 44 floodlights) and the largest display, Mr. Calph outshines everyone. "The whole property is consumed by lights," said Mr. Calph, a 40-year-old makeup artist who quits his job every July to devote his days to Christmas. As December draws near, he works at home 16 hours a day, getting his house ready.
Mr. Calph enumerated some items that make up the winter fantasy at his home on East Palm Lane: 20,000 staples to hold the lights and garlands (each will be removed by hand in January); 25 miniature elves; a movable carousel; a turning Ferris wheel with elves in various poses of mock fright; a dozen artificial trees, from 3 to 9 feet tall; four large puffs of smoke fashioned from wire and white lights suspended over the house and animated by computer; a 20-foot-tall cottage with animated elves as residents; a mountain and river mural, and a life-size Mrs. Claus. Many of the creatures have realistic latex faces that Mr. Calph made. Almost all decorations are hand-made by Mr. Calph or his friends.
Mr. Calph hires a live Santa Claus, who is stationed in the living room this year, in front of an animated fireplace. Santa waves at people who are outside on the house tour, which winds around the property into the backyard. "People think he's animated, too," Mr. Calph said.
How does Santa arrive? Last year, Mr. Calph built a 20-foot train for Santa, and the year before, Santa came in on a 20-foot balloon. This year, he came the old-fashioned way: by sleigh, which is parked on the patio.
Bob Rix opened the door to his Tudor house on Thanksgiving to dazzle visitors with 56,240 lights (there are 10,000 lights around the front windows and door), a plywood forest of 52 trees, a snow village, a waterfall and fountain in the backyard, a train, suspended at eye level, that travels the walls of one room, and 192 constantly turning ornaments.
"Only the bathroom and the kitchen sink are not decorated," said Mr. Rix, who has put 704 hours of work into his house since the beginning of September. He, too, is temporarily off the job. He is a self-employed exterminator.
His holiday electricity bill is $1,100 above normal, he says, adding, "But there are hidden costs that dwarf the electric bill." For instance, although he hunts for half-price bargains after Christmas, he spends hundreds of dollars on such things as silk poinsettias and mechanical angels before Christmas.
For Myron and Karen Lynn, the biggest hidden cost was their house, which they bought four years ago. "If it weren't for Christmas, I don't think we would have bought it," Mr. Lynn said.
The Lynn home is on half an acre on a busy street and has a big circular driveway with an island (to better show off the front yard embellishments). The property also includes tall pine trees (which Mr. Lynn decorates by using a rented bucket truck) and is large enough for the couple's 50,000 lights and Mr. Lynn's handmade life-size Christmas characters.
Mr. Lynn, 52, is a cabinetmaker. He creates reindeer, elves, snowmen and polar bears out of cotton stuffing. Visitors are also entertained by Mr. Lynn's guitar and his wife's singing.
In nearby Scottsdale, Ann Gerber puts on the Wolfman's Christmas Light Show (named for Wolfman Custom Pinstriping of Phoenix, operated by her husband, John Gerber). Mrs. Gerber said it costs her more than $1,600 every year to rent a storage shed for the Christmas decorations. This year, there are about 25,000 lights, a $15,000 porcelain Dickens village and dozens of animated creatures.
Ms. Gerber also hires four or five men every weekend to help her complete the displays and, after showtime starts, several off-duty police officers as traffic controllers. Her total annual operating expenses are about $10,000, she said.
But what's a Christmas story without a Grinch or two? This year so far, about 27 people have complained to City Hall about traffic jams, noise and pollution from the lights-tour buses. Last year, Mr. Calph said, he counted 300 Greyhound buses and 200 limousines outside his house.
Despite the complaints, the displayers are prepared to deck the halls again next year.
"When we flip the switch and the lights come on," Mrs. Gerber said, "and you see the first kid come screaming in and getting so delighted, that's what we do it for. It has become part of our Christmas tradition."
Rix House Phoenix Az Christmas Decorations
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/12/garden/in-arizona-a-bright-christmas.html