Canoga Park Residents Light Up The Night With Holiday Cheer

By Charlotte Rudnick, Quilt staff.

DATELINE: VALERIO STREET

Though Christmas is still 18 days away, Santa Claus will have no trouble finding his way to Canoga Park homes if residents’ eye-catching outdoor holiday decorations are any indicator.

The majesty of the holiday season is captured brilliantly in this stunning display on a house on
Runnymede Street. Or it was a condo on Moorcroft? Regardless, it's magnificent.  Staff photo.

From Alabama Avenue to Wyandotte Street and everywhere in between, Canoga Parkians are showing their “holiday spirit” through marvelous displays of miniature electrified lights hung from outdoor eaves and gutters, outlining door frames and walkways and strung gaily over trees and bushes.

Another breathtaking display of lights on, where was this, Cohasset, maybe. Staff photo.

Some lights burn with a steady glow, while others twinkle like the starlight that guided three wise French hens to a lowly manger in Bethesda those many years ago. Perhaps most eye-catching are those that even blink on and off, or intermittently, and seem to chase one another along their insulated wire-strands in a merry show reminiscent of the illuminated display on a catwalk heralding the start of the headlining act inside one of our local gentlemen’s clubs. 

Visitors to this neighborhood (Loma Verde Avenue? Elkwood Street?) might well think they'd
somehow been transplanted to the North Pole, thanks to this magical lighted diorama. Staff photo.

A few yards even feature traditional Christmas characters such as Mickey Mouse and Spongebob Squarepants in delightfully oversized three-dimensions, stitched together not by busy elves in Santa's workshop, but by just-as-industrious little workers in a faraway Chinese factory.

Bright 'icicle' lights are the main focus on this house, possibly on Schoolcraft Street (?), where careful
thought, planning and an eye for placement pay off in a detailed "Christmas gift" for the eye. Staff photo.

These lifelike representations maintain their pillowy statuesque form thanks to small, efficient air pumps that give off a jolly hum. (To save energy and prevent climate change, most are on timers and self-deflate into hideously festive puddles of nylon and plastic when the power’s off).

Staked to the ground like Christmas cowboys ambushed in the desert by a tribe of Native
American grinches, perennial holiday favorites Winnie-the-Pooh, R2-D2 and pals deflate
during the day to help save the environment and minimize air pump emissions. Staff photo.

“Oh, we take ‘the Christmas lights tour’ every December,” laughs Ed Klein, of tony West Hills, who stands near his wife Pat, both dressed snugly in down jackets, knit wool caps, scarves and gloves, challenging Southern California’s infamously pleasant, temperate late-autumn weather to do its worst. “The self-guided tour, that is. When we head over to Gallo Giro, you know, to get one of their tortas...? We usually just zip down Saticoy, right onto De Soto, and pull into the parking lot there at Sherman Way. 

Baby It's Kind of Refreshingly Brisk Outside: Bundled up to brave the chill of a late autumn
evening, Pat and Ed Klein of West Hills enjoyed the holiday light show put on by participating
Canoga Park residents on their way to El Gallo Giro — to get one of their tortas.     Staff photo.

“However, this time of year, we drive along Valerio and look at all the beautiful lights. Well, at least until it gets to...um...until the neighborhood gets kind of...uh, you know...  Eh...eh...well, then we just head back up to Saticoy for the rest of the way.”

“But the Christmas lights we see up to that point!” adds Pat. “Look up ahead, there’s some pretty blue and red flashing ones and...  Oh my, that’s a police car...something’s going on down the street there...Ed, honey, let’s get back in the car now. Right now.”

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The Canoga Park Festival of Lights runs now through some indistinct time after January 1st, 2016, throughout Canoga Park on and around various homes and businesses. To learn which local homes and businesses are participating, open your eyes and look around. And if you live in Canoga Park, put up some damn lights, why dontcha? C’mon, it looks nice.