Only one word can describe Martel’s Christmas House in Hamilton
Words are my bread and butter, but when it comes to attempting to describe Martel’s Christmas House, I’m useless. I’m like margarine and melba toast.
So listen: Do yourself a favor and head on over to 21 Phillips Avenue in Hamilton and spend a little time with Bob Martel and family. He’s around Monday to Wednesday from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m., the rest of the week until 10 p.m. You’ll pull up and, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be like … whoa.
It’s more Christmas than you’ve ever seen on .17 of an acre. It is … whoa.
“Well, I figure there’s over 75,000 lights, but I quit counting a long time ago,” Martel said. “I’ve been doing it for 31 years, and every year we change it up, every year it gets bigger. This year, everything on the house is LED. I have 10,000 lights on the roof. Excuse me for a second, I just need to get Santa in here …”
Oh yes. Sometimes Santa shows up. I’d lay 3-to-1 it’s the real McCoy.
Before we go any further, you need to understand something about me: This is something I’d normally loathe being dragged to by my wife. I’m not a big “lights” guy. I mean, it’s electricity. No big whoop. Sure, maybe I would’ve been dazzled 100 years ago, but today? I mean, cool and all, but I’ve got a lamp in my house that also shines bright and so, whatever.
But this blew me away. From the moment I pulled up to the Martel house, I was like … whoa.
And it’s not just lights. Full walkthrough in the backyard. Trains, animatronic figures, a 20-foot teddy bear ferris wheel Martel built himself.
That’s right. A 20-foot teddy bear ferris wheel.
Whoa.
“It takes two-and-half months, seven hours a day to put up,” Martel said. “My son Tim and his wife Jessica come on the weekends to help. I’m retired now from the train company, but we were trying to figure out how I did all this when I was working.”
I’m telling you: It’s unfathomable until you see it.
“My monthly PSEG bill for this is about $1,800,” Martel said. “Hoping it goes down this year because of the LED lights. But if it does, then I can just add more next year.”
Martel doesn’t charge a dime for the people to swing by, but he does accept donations — after all, he figures he’s spent “probably at least $125,000” over the years on the display — and guesses he gets about 10,000 people a year to check it out.
All of this begs a simple question: Why?
“My favorite movie is ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,’ if that gives you some idea,” Martel said. “Christmas is my favorite holiday. Growing up, I had two uncles that would decorate their houses. Not extravagant, but pretty big. And every year they’d have a contest to see who decorated better. I always loved going to their houses. I guess I kind of inherited it. I just get a real kick out of Christmas, a real kick into seeing what I can do with it.”
It is a legit wonderland. Christmas music being piped in, Santa hanging out, little kids being dazzled, cynical adults being like “whoa …”
I went the day after the snow last week, and Martel, fearful that the walkthrough would turn into an ice show, spent the day shoveling the grass so people could enjoy the festivities.
Martel told me there used to be two other big walkthroughs in Hamilton, but one guy retired and Martel bought out the other guy when he decided to hang up the lights.
At age 62, Martel has no plans to quit anytime soon.
“I’ll do it as long as I can,” he said. “But my son is pretty into it too. When you leave here, make a right onto Lacy and another right onto Locust. His house is catty corner with mine. It’s covered with lights. That will be Martel’s Christmas House II.”
Whoa.
Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@trentonian.com, facebook.com/jeffreyedelstein and @jeffedelstein on Twitter.