CANDY CANE LANE'S REBELS WITH A CLAUS NEIGHBORS EMULATE ELVES.Byline: Michael Gougis Staff Writer WOODLAND HILLS - With the first holiday season in their new home approaching, Dawn and Scott Grimes Scott Richard Grimes (b. July 9 1971, Lowell, Massachusetts) is an American actor and musician. He is the uncle of Camryn Grimes, who is best known for her role as "Cassie Newman" on The Young and the Restless. weren't about to let the neighborhood down. So Dawn's father loaded up a trailer with Christmas decorations (``The bigger, the gaudier, the better,'' Dawn said) and shipped them from Virginia to their home on Candy Cane Lane in Woodland Hills. ``It's nuts when you live in a neighborhood where this isn't enough,'' said Scott, 32, as he surveyed his front yard filled with large plastic figurines of a Nativity scene A nativity scene, also called a crib or crèche (meaning "crib" or "manger" in French) generally refers to any depiction of the birth or birthplace of Jesus. In Italy it is known as presepe , bears, snowmen, toy soldiers, and a pretty hefty Santa Claus Santa Claus: see Nicholas, Saint. Santa Claus jolly, gift-giving figure who visits children on Christmas Eve. [Christian Tradition: NCE, 1937] See : Christmas Santa Claus , the product of two solid days of work. ``But you don't want to be the Scrooge of the neighborhood.'' Up and down Lubao Avenue on Sunday afternoon, residents new to the neighborhood were preparing for their first and second holiday seasons in the heart of one of the Valley's oldest Christmas traditions. Since 1952, homeowners have gone overboard in decorating houses and yards along Lubao, Jumilla, Oakdale and Penfield avenues between Oxnard and Martha streets. Holiday nights sometimes finds lines of cars backed up to the Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. , as spectators cue up to see the elaborate, ornate decorations. Some of the newcomers started from scratch; some found decorations left behind by the previous owners. But each wanted to play a role in a tradition that, in many cases, was older than they were. Residents have come and gone, but the community's tradition continues. ``If you said I'd be living here last year, I would have laughed,'' said Pam Grimes Grimes is a surname, that is believed to be of a Scandinavian decent and may refer to
Jay Dolin, 39, is decorating his Candy Cane Lane home for the second year. He and his family are Jewish, but they created an elaborate display of candy canes and Santa's sleigh sleigh: see sled. just because ``we kind of got into the spirit of the neighborhood,'' he said. Some of the decor has a bit of Hollywood history to go with it. ``This sleigh is from the movie 'The Santa Clause,''' said Michelle Dodgen, 35, as she and her husband, Steve, 37, applied gold and red paint to a huge wooden sleigh parked behind an array of reindeer reindeer, ruminant mammal, genus Rangifer, of the deer family, found in arctic and subarctic regions of Eurasia and North America. It is the only deer in which both sexes have antlers. that stretched across an entire lawn. They've set up the display on Bob Linder's yard, in part, to raise money for their Girl Scout troop. The Scouts will dress as elves Elves A slang term for guests appearing on the PBS television show "Wall Street Week." Notes: These technical analysts attempt to predict the direction of the market in the coming months. , and they'll sell hot chocolate and pictures with Santa in the sleigh as a fund-raiser. Creating the decorations was a family event in itself for some people. Gee Gee deBruyn, who's been in the neighborhood for 2 1/2 years, and her family created a winter village cutout cut·out n. 1. Something cut out or intended to be cut out from something else. 2. Electricity A device that interrupts, bypasses, or disconnects a circuit or circuit element. 3. by designing the buildings on a computer, using a projector to superimpose su·per·im·pose tr.v. su·per·im·posed, su·per·im·pos·ing, su·per·im·pos·es 1. To lay or place (something) on or over something else. 2. the images onto sheets of wood and cutting them out and painting them. ``It was a whole family thing; it was a lot of fun,'' she said. There was one resident who wasn't a big fan of the decorations - after all, traffic and congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. in front of your home can get old after a bit. This resident had his own tradition: His sole decoration was a Grinch peeking out between the living room curtains. ``But he's moved, and the new people are already decorating,'' deBruyn said as she laughed. Residents usually keep the decorations up and lit until Jan. 2. Visitors are asked to drive by before 10 p.m. on weeknights and 11 p.m. on weekends. The neighborhood can be reached by exiting the Ventura Freeway at Winnetka Avenue and heading north, then turning right on Oxnard Street. Michael Gougis, (818) 713-3762 michael.gougis(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) Scott and Dawn Grimes, right, have toy soldiers at the ready in front of their Lubao Avenue house in Woodland Hills, part of Candy Cane Lane. Though new to the neighborhood, they've quickly done their part to participate in the Christmas tradition. Gee Gee deBruyn, top, dips a brush in paint as she touches up the village in her front yard on Lubao Avenue. David Sprague/Staff Photographer |
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