Beginning to look a lot like …
Christmas lights and contests ready to captivate Mother Lode children, parents
From Mokelumne Hill to Angels Camp, Columbia to Sonora, Soulsbyville to Twain Harte, and Chinese Camp to Groveland, residents of the Mother Lode have strung out their Christmas lights.
Some displays are modest and some are grand. Either way, a common theme among people who take the time to unwind spools of electric wire, check for
broken bulbs, tap nails or place hooks, and invest in newer, longer extension cords is to share the spirit of Christmas with their neighbors, even in the time of a deadly pandemic.
“I put them out on the store, just a simple one, along the chimney and fence, to cheer up the people,” Add Beale, co-owner of the Chinese Camp Store and Tavern on Highway 49, said Wednesday in a phone interview. Add and her husband, Richard, have two children, ages 13 and 19, and they are home for the holidays. “It's a really hard year for everyone with the COVID.”
At night, the lights stand out in the darkness in Chinese Camp, like they do everywhere else in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. Families looking for Christmas lights tours have multiple options this year. There are Christmas light contests in both counties, and there's a Christmas window display contest for businesses in downtown Sonora.
Some neighbors don't need a formal contest to enter. They are naturally and good-naturedly trying to outdo each other all by themselves.
“My kids love it and I love it,” Audrey Pritchard, who has strung lights on her roof's eaves, window frames, porch railings, stairs and even a couple of trees, at her place on Harper Road in Groveland. “I started hanging my lights in November. A few hours a week to get it going. It's my favorite time of year. I love Christmas. Everybody's just happy this time of year, even with COVID. The lights brighten up everything.”
Pritchard said she's “almost in a contest” with a neighbor on Merrell Road, to see “who's lighting their house more.” Her neighbor has inflatable blowup displays too, which she doesn't have. Yet.
“I might get them,” she said. “There's a house on Ferretti Road, they always have super cool Christmas decorations. I would never be able to beat that house.”
Roy Konvolinka, Pritchard's neighbor on Merrell Road, laughed Wednesday and said, “Yeah, they try and compete with me. We do lights and inflatables. A little bit of both. It's an easy house to decorate. A little gingerbread house. Slap a few lights on it, it looks good. We have some other neighbors doing lights too.”
Gloria Lucas, who lives on Niagara River Drive in Crystal Falls, said there are 16 homes lit up on her street this year.
“It's always been competitive,” Lucas said. “Then some people moved away, and some new folks moved in and they want to go all out. Last year there was a little competition between my husband, Ken, and one of the new neighbors, Derle, and they became great friends. Now this year they say `the war is on.' Both of them thought about it all year long, what they were going to do for Christmas this year.”
Lucas said her husband got polyvinyl piping and built “a humongous Christmas tree to go in the center of our yard,” and it's all lit up. Then he took wire tomato plant baskets and made four smaller Christmas trees and draped them with blue, red, white and green lights and put those out there.
“How many extension cords?” Lucas asked. “You know I couldn't tell you but he's got them all on timers. He put a big star on top of the house. Berle got this beautiful star he made, and artificial Christmas trees, and candy canes that must be six-foot-tall, and deer with lights on them, too.”
Lucas, 75, said she got a brainstorm that she wanted to make a snowman. He's not a little one. He's a pretty good size.
“I made it myself, completely, out of two threelayer planters, one my daughter Judy gave me,” Lucas said. “No blowup stuff for us. It's out there, and it's all lit up.”
Lucas said she wants people to know she and her neighbors welcome the Christmas lights tourists who drive up and down to see the light displays. Last year, they had two bus loads of people come.
“Please let citizens in Tuolumne County know we have worked hard to give others a special holiday treat,” she said in an email to The Union Democrat.
Robert “Spider” Cantley, 86, who lives on Muir Avenue in Twain Harte, might have one of the most visited and photographed light displays in Tuolumne County.
Cantley said he's been doing Christmas decorations 40 to 50 years in the Bay Area and in Twain Harte. He used to get up on ladders and put up elaborate decorations, but he's getting older, so this year it's all lights. He moved to Twain Harte full time 15 years ago.
Before moving to Twain Harte full time, Cantley said he'd get more than 150,000 visitors a year at his place in Fremont, give out 50,000 candy canes a year to kids, and worked with KGO Radio in San Francisco to help raise a total $21 million for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society over 30 years, with all the money going to cancer research.
“It looks special,” he said of his place in Twain Harte. “It's been a lifelong thing.”
Cantley said he keeps the lights on at his place from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. each night.
One of the Christmas lights contests in Tuolumne County is being organized on social media in a group called Sonora Christmas Light Contest, for houses near the downtown Sonora area. Gift certificates for local businesses will be awarded as prizes for first, second and third place. The deadline to enter the contest was Thursday.
Organizers of the contest hope to have a map showing houses that are competing and another map of neighborhoods with lights throughout the county by Saturday. For more information visit http://bit.ly/3mpr99c online.
Trisha Chalk, of Sonora, has already created a map of homes with Christmas lights in Angels Camp, Sonora, Soulsbyville, Crystal Falls, Twain Harte and other locations. For more information visit http://bit.ly/38cglro online.
The Angels Camp Business Association has also already sponsored a Light Up the Night contest for homes and businesses. Winners were announced Tuesday, and they included homes on Centennial Road, Suzanne Drive and Tuolumne Road. Business winners were St. Patrick's Church, the Calaveras County Office of Education, and Mingos on Main. For maps visit http://bit.LY/2IU6WZB online.
In addition, the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring what's billed as the firstever Keep the Cheer Here countywide Christmas decorating contest for homes and businesses. Homes and businesses entered in the contest will be put on an interactive map. This one costs money to enter, $25 per home and $99 to $149 per business.
Homes entered will receive signage, goodies and placement on the live map. Businesses entered will receive a promo video, signage and goodies, their logo on the live map, logo and business weblink on a participants' webpage.
Prizes awarded will include the Clark Griswold Trophy for the most lights; the Buddy the Elf Trophy for “best in cheer and showmanship”; the Spirit of Calaveras Trophy for the most creative nod to Calaveras County; and the People's Choice Trophy, with the winner decided by the public. Participants are urged to enter by Friday, Dec. 18. For more information call the chamber at (209) 7545400 or visit https://bit. ly/34kce57 online.
The Sonora Chamber of Commerce sponsored a window display contest for businesses in downtown Sonora from late November to earlier this month and the winners were announced Tuesday night during a virtual holiday mixer. The Mayor's Choice for Best Holiday Window Display award went to Addictions Spray Tanning & Fashion. The Sonora High School Leadership Program's Choice award went to The Post Home Decor. The Voters' Choice award, in which more than 265 individual votes were received, went to Fittin' Pretty Bras & Boutique.
The chamber's No Place Like Sonora for the Holidays marketing campaign ends Saturday. Participating downtown businesses will remain open from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The chamber has partnered with KAAD Radio 103.5 to provide holiday music from local musicians. Chamber staff will offer free gift wrapping at one or more locations on Washington Street for shoppers with purchase receipts from the same evening.