Welcome to Christmas Eve. The only day of the year when we're cool with the thought of an obese bearded fellow, dressed completely in red, sneaking through our living room in the middle of the night.
It's a perfect time then to explore other strange customs of the season. Customs like decorated houses.
Think about it. Seemingly well-adjusted individuals spending hours, and sometimes days and weeks, adorning their homes with bulbs and snowmen and cartoon characters, and then spending an equivalent amount of time weeks later disassembling and removing all of it.
Truth is though that we do appreciate it. The weather may be cold and the nights may be long, but there's a comfort and a warmth in those decorated homes that helps us through.
Particularly those that go way, way beyond the norm. We found quite a few just like that in the last couple of nights, and we'll document them here.
A word of warning though. We'd initially planned to feature only those houses we hadn't photographed in the past. But as we drove through town, we realized something. Many of the folks who go big continue to go even bigger and bigger with each successive year.
In the end, we just couldn't say no to returning greats who've upped their game even further for 2019. Greats like Darryl and Debbie Jones.
We don’t like to play favourites, but there's something truly special about people who not only fill their entire yard with imagination, but design and carve the majority of their decorative elements by hand. From plywood sheets.
And that's precisely what's in store at 238 Huth Avenue, a stunning homage to Christmassy cartoon characters past and present.
And chief builder Darryl Jones has added much more for 2019. Amongst the new recruits are a "baker's dozen" of gingerbread men and a gingerbread house below the front window and a gingerbread couple in the middle of the yard. All cut, built, and painted on site.
The gingerbread couple is especially impressive. Jones added little doors, complete with latches, behind each of the faces. Guests are welcome to open those doors and insert their own faces for photographs. We thought that was pretty darned cool.
And Jones tuned us into some even bigger plans he has for 2020.
"I've been accumulating more stuff," he said with a laugh. "Next year, there'll be way more lights and way more stuff. And I'll make more cutouts. It will be substantially different. I'm thinking of adding a walkthrough to the back yard."
At this point, we begged Jones to let us know first so we can drop by for hardcore construction photos as he gets it all together. We can't wait.
Drive up Carmi and you'll see a pleasant lighting display on a half duplex about halfway between Main Street and Penticton Speedway. But that's not what you'll notice first.
It's the home of a fellow by the name of Greg Kerr. And what makes Kerr's display so special is the illuminated truck in the driveway. Yep, an illuminated truck, and it's an eye-catcher.
"It's my second year for the truck," said Kerr when we rang his doorbell last night. "It's a '72 GMC pickup. It doesn't run so well right now. It's more of a lawn ornament."
Instead of regular Christmas bulbs, Kerr outlined the truck in red neon. And his choice of colour has meaning.
"I got the colours for the display, the red, white, and green, from my neighbour up north in Terrace. A good guy, he was dealing with MS. I'm emulating him here."
A great story, and a nifty "lawn ornament." We like.
One of Penticton's best-dressed Halloween haunts, 1588 Hatfield Drive goes just as wild at Christmas too. But it's even grander for 2019.
Not only have owners Delana Butler and William McLeod added significantly more stuff, but their next door duplex neighbours, Macy and Mike Palosky, have gotten into the act too.
As a result, the big white house just across the street from Columbia Elementary - the one with the enormous Christmas tree in the middle of the front yard - looks especially spectacular.
McLeod tells us they've added several new lawn decorations this year and a bunch of new ornaments on that colossal tree. And yes, McLeod decorated the entire tree himself with the help of a very, very tall ladder.
The guy is clearly comfortable with extreme heights. But Delana isn't. "I can't even look at him while he's up there," she said.
They estimated it takes "four or five days" to put up everything. And just a little less than that to take it all down in January. And they do take down absolutely everything - even the high-altitude bulbs, which they said would fade if left up through the summer.
Another repeat from 2018, Jay and Jodi Barner's home in Sendero Canyon simply could not be denied for 2019. Yes, we photographed it last year, but that was before Jay had a chance to fully decorate. Then he went and acquired even more goodies.
It's hard to be a standout on a street like Lawrence. We shot a couple of other homes there last year, and we could have shot more. Virtually the entire road looks like it's part of a mushy Hallmark Christmas movie.
But the Barner's place does stand out. It's that good.
"We did this in Qualicum Beach for ten or 15 years before this," said Jay. "A lot of this comes from my youth. When I grew up, my dad would take us for a drive to see other people's houses on Christmas Eve. And I wondered why we didn't do it at our house."
"But we mainly do it for the kids in the neighbourhood. It's so cool to see them this happy about something."
It takes the Barners three or four days to set it all up. "There's no real plan," said Jay. "It just comes out the way it comes out."
We respectfully disagree. It looks downright sophisticated, particularly when much of the lawn decorations are surrounded by snow as they were last night.
"We pulled up here the other day and there was a couple of ladies out front with a little one, just taking it in," said Jay. No wonder.
Last year, PentictonNow spotlighted the home of Armand Granger at 1165 Kilwinning. And this year, it's still one of the straight-up brightest in the city.
At the time, Granger suggested we photograph his daughter's house too, just a block away. They were, he said, involved in a friendly competition for the splashiest home in the neighbourhood.
And that's really saying something, because, like Lawrence Street in Sendero Canyon, the "K street" neighbourhood is one of the best in town.
And this year, we finally took Granger up on his suggestion. Meeting us at the door was daughter Lindley and her husband and head bulb installer Mike Rudolph.
Yeah, that's right. The guy who installs Christmas lights is named Rudolph.
Curiously, he uses no red bulbs at all. Instead, 1110 Killarney is a study in blue and white. It's moody, and it's glorious.
"This is our third year," said Rudolph. "Her dad and I, we did a competition a couple years ago. And then last year my neighbor Jeremy (Jeremy Jobke at 1111 Kilwinning, another eminently worthy home we featured in 2018) joined in. So the three of us are kind of in it together now."
Rudolph takes everything down at the end of the season except the lights in the tree out front, a complex weave of strands he needed a scaffold to install.
"This year," added Granger, "we got an anonymous card in the mailbox saying, 'Thank you for spreading holiday cheer.'"
We agree.
Right next door to the Lindley Granger-Mike Rudolph spectacular above is 1116 Killarney. It's a newbie on the Christmas hit list for 2019, and it's clearly the start of something good.
Sadly, no one was home on the night of our arrival. So we pestered Mike Rudolph at 1110, who told us it was the work of "Trina and Scott."
And that's all we know, which leaves us with little to do except thank Trina and Scott for an awesome rookie effort. You're part of what makes Penticton a pretty special place to be at Christmas.
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