Bob Olson\u2019s house lights up the neighborhood at night. (Photo by Jeremy Ogul)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIt takes an enormous amount of electricity to power all of that Christmas cheer, four hours a night for several weeks straight. Olson said his electric bill for December is usually at least $250 more than his typical bill. That’s on top of the several thousands of dollars he has invested in decorations.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s all worth it for the throngs of families who come by to get in the holiday spirit, Olson said. Sometimes they dance to the music on the lawn. Others take pictures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had one family come out here one year with a little girl who saw all the lights and said, \u2018Mommy, mommy \u2014 Disneyland!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Olson has already begun setting up his display, he says it won\u2019t be fully complete until about Dec. 3. The lights will be on every night until Jan. 1, and he encourages everyone to stop by and enjoy the spectacle.<\/p>\n
\nOne of the most recognizable holiday sights in La Mesa is the giant \u201ctree\u201d formed out of long strands of thousands of lights on the hill near the intersection of University Avenue and La Mesa Boulevard.<\/p>\n
The 70-foot tree, similar to what SeaWorld does with its SkyTower every year, features 1,260 bulbs and can be seen for miles across town. Dexter Levy has been rigging it up outside his house every year since 1997.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just do it for the fun of it,\u201d said Levy, a third generation La Mesan.<\/p>\n
Most people don\u2019t realize that the tree is fashioned almost entirely out of old and repurposed materials. The 25 strands of lights \u2014 red, white and blue \u2014 were left over after the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, and Levy got a hold of them for practically nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife spent two days sitting on the living room floor unscrewing all the light bulbs so we could put them back together the way we wanted them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That was about the same time General Dynamics was dismantling its Kearny Mesa campus, where Levy had been the administrator for Convair\u2019s recreation group. From a building slated for demolition, Levy managed to salvage a 50-amp electrical subpanel that he now uses to handle the electrical load of all the lights. He also extracted a contactor (a magnetic power switch) that had been used to turn on tennis court lights at Convair\u2019s Missile Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just all stuff that would have been thrown away,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n
He carefully strings up the lights on a crank-up, tilt-over CB antenna tower his parents installed on the property decades ago. Each strand of lights is on its own circuit breaker. It\u2019s a minor feat of engineering that takes at least two days to set up every year.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Levys found the money to replace every 7.5-watt bulb with LED bulbs. That brought the cost of powering the whole thing down from $600 to about $200, Levy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really enjoy doing it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I think my parents would have absolutely loved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThough she has only lived in La Mesa for a few months, Gina Dobbins is excited to welcome families to her lavishly decorated home for candy canes and a visit with Santa on Saturday, Dec. 20.<\/p>\n
Dobbins has been inviting Santa to hang out with kids in front of her former home in Allied Gardens for more than a decade. She decorates with numerous inflatable snowmen, a polar bear, reindeer, a sleigh, strands of lights and much more that she has collected over the years.<\/p>\n
“I do not have kids myself, but I\u2019m a kid at heart,” Dobbins said. “I love the excitement. Everybody’s so nice at Christmas.”<\/p>\n
For Dobbins, creating a special experience for kids is a small way to give back and spread the holiday cheer, especially for children whose families don’t have the time or money to create a winter wonderland of their own. She recalls one year in particular that a young military family with small children told her the line to see Santa at Fashion Valley mall was hours long, and photos were prohibitively expensive. The family thanked her for providing a friendly and free neighborhood alternative to the hectic mall scene.<\/p>\n
Santa will stop by Dobbins’ house at 7817 Quince St. (near the Riviera Supper Club) on Saturday, Dec. 20 beginning at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Guests are also welcome to walk or drive by any time between sunset and 10 p.m. during the month of December to check out the decorations.<\/p>\n
\u2014Reach Jeremy Ogul at jeremy@sdcnn.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Por Jeremy Ogul | Editor<\/p>","protected":false},"author":741,"featured_media":221736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Local homeowners give holiday decorating everything they\u2019ve got","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/741"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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