The shining lights of Christmas
They decorate for their kids, their neighbourhood and for all those who decorated before them
Karin Martin remembers watching her Mom pull out all the stops — and decorations — for Christmas.
Martin was the youngest of nine children in their Fruitland, Ont., home. She said they didn’t have much; Martin’s father had died. Yet, despite having a lot on her plate, her mother made the festivities a focus for the family.
“She hauled in the tree by herself, decorated the house by herself,” says Martin, 52. “My mother was a big Christmas lover. Even the year she passed away — she was 88 — she was still putting up decorations. I inherited all her Christmas decorations.”
Martin also inherited her mother’s spirit for the season. When she met her husband Trevor Walker, she said he grumbled about the lights. But then they had their own children.
“I told him, ‘It’s not about you, it’s about the kids.’ And it was like the lights turned on in his head, literally. Then he started involving himself and took over. When I did it, I hung the twinkling white lights, cedar boughs and red bows.
“When my husband took over about 10 years ago, first he added the coloured lights. Then it became the Griswoldian light show from hell,” Martin says, laughing, about the over-the-top decorating done by the character played by Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
The couple’s decorations were among those reported to the Star when we asked readers to tell us about some of the city’s best festive light displays.
Spectators come to their street, just north and east of High Park, and wait for them to flip the switch the first time on Dec. 1 — and on the nights that follow.
“We always get cards in the mailbox, saying ‘Thank you.’ One time, we got a Christmas card; this young girl had moved from Ottawa and couldn’t go home. She was walking by and we had old-school Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby Christmas songs playing. She said it made her feel at home.”
In a quiet residential neighbourhood near Dufferin St. and Eglinton Ave. W., Mary Genua has been decorating her home for almost 30 years. She used to work at nearby St. John Bosco Catholic school and did it for the neighbourhood kids, after starting with a few decorations and then outdoing herself each year.
“I love Christmas as much as the kids do,” says Genua, leaning on a cane, admiring her latest acquisitions on the front lawn: a new snowman and two pre-lit artificial Christmas trees. “I got a good deal on the trees. They are normally $300 each, but I got ’em for $45 on a Boxing Day sale.”
The decorations continue inside — this year her living room is purple and gold. Also in her living room: three Nativity scenes and a revolving Christmas tree.
“You have to try these glasses on,” she says, handing out 3D glasses that make the tree appear covered with Santa and reindeers. “Isn’t that cool?!” Andrew Fraser began hanging Christmas lights on his towering Norwegian maple after watching an arborist trim a neighbour’s tree in his Lawrence Ave. W. and Avenue Rd. neighbourhood.
“What they use is, literally, a big sling shot, weighted down by a bean bag. It was the coolest thing,” Fraser says. Intrigued, he bought one of the contraptions and used it to string a few lights around the big tree.
Then he fine-tuned the concept by hanging a giant design from the top branch — roughly 11⁄ storeys high.
2 “Over the years I’ve done Christmas balls, a chandelier, a giant candy cane, a snowman, a shooting star,” he explains.
This year’s peace sign came up during a conversation at a neighbourhood party. “I am not a particularly political person . . . But just given the sense of community and the stuff going on in the news, it struck a chord. I originally thought of doing an angel. A peace symbol was much easier.”
There’s no particular symbolism to the decorations festooning Grace D’Elia’s home in Parkdale, famous as one of the brightest Christmas displays in the city. The front lawn is filled with snowmen, a duck, a rooster, a penguin, candy canes, angels, snowflakes and stars. There’s a Christmas countdown clock on the porch.
Until about three years ago, her parents used to do the bulk of the decorating a few days at a time over November. But now that her father is 91 and mother is 77, D’Elia takes a week off of work to oversee the project.
“My parents still do as much as they can. There’s got to be over 5,000 lights out there,” she says. “Now, my father likes to put together his Christmas Village. He enjoys setting it up in the dining room.”
Meanwhile, in Mississauga, Sharon and Chuck Langley make their apartment building a winter wonderland. Sharon, 65, and Chuck, 83, both from the East Coast, are supervisors of the building and selfdescribed “Christmas nuts.”
The Langley’s Mississauga Christmas cheer started off nine years ago with decorating the lobby. It spread into the mailbox area — and then outside.
“We do it for the kids. We’re big softies,” Sharon says.
They also organize a potluck for the tenants, with a visit by Santa and Mrs. Claus. Another resident, Christine Murphy, dresses up as Ms. Kandy Kane.
“We have the best Santa Claus, he has a real beard,” Sharon says. “Santa Claus stays until the last kid has gone. It’s just fantastic watching the kids, their eyes bulging out.”