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Trying to keep up with the Fitzgeralds
By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer
LAND O'LAKES -- It's Monday evening, two days before the big Christmas light contest and Tim Foley has a case of filament envy. The owners of the house down the street, the brown one all decked out to look like it's made of gingerbread, had hung more strands of lights. In this year's War of the Wattage in Land O'Lakes' Lake Padgett Estates neighborhood, that simply could not stand. "We actually ran out and got more stuff today because we saw the gingerbread house put more stuff up," Foley said as he unfurled strands at his Darley Place house taken over by lighted Dr. Seuss creations. At the gingerbread house on Weeks Boulevard, last year's first-prize winner in Lake Padgett, Roberta Fitzgerald has created an even grander vision of sugar plums. If her family wins again this year, she'll join the Christmas light Hall of Fame, Lake Padgett's name for homes that come in first place twice in three years. So up went hundreds of handmade plastic foamhard candies, hot-glued to the eaves of the house in swirls and stripes of glorious color. "It doesn't matter if I win or not," Fitzgerald said not so convincingly. After all, tears rolled down her face when she unexpectedly won last year. And the Hall of Fame beckons this year. They take their Christmas lights seriously in Lake Padgett Estates, at 1,000 homes one of the oldest and largest neighborhoods in Land O'Lakes. Former neighborhood president Betty Buckman used to hire out a limousine from which the judges could observe the multicolored splendor in comfort. The competition started small but exploded about 10 years ago, Buckman said. Winning once wasn't enough. People craved entry into Christmas light Cooperstown. To avoid any whiff of favoritism, Lake Padgett took to using out-of-neighborhood judges. "One year I had somebody come to my house and scream and holler," Buckman says. "They thought I fixed the contest." The judges will scan every nook of the sprawling neighborhood tonight, but some houses, like the Foleys', are clearly the favorites. Tim and Edie Foley adopted the Dr. Seuss theme by accident two years ago. A lawn Christmas tree made of PVC pipe unexpectedly bent at the top. It reminded the kids of the offbeat illustrations in the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Tim Foley sawed various Seuss characters out of plywood and painted them to resemble the Grinch and the Whoville residents from the story. Each Foley child -- Jason, Justin, Sarah and Jamie -- have a wooden Who character named after them on the lawn. Lights proclaim "Happy Wholidays from the Foleys." Strands are stapled to the roof tiles, giving the impression of an illuminated net. The Foleys earned fourth place in last year's judging. It's no small sacrifice to be the best. Electrical bills can double. This year, the Foleys had the electrician install a new circuit breaker to handle the thousands of mini bulbs. "Last year I couldn't blow dry my hair without blowing out the lights," Edie Foley said. The Foleys scout the competition, including the gingerbread house. Fitzgerald admits to checking out the Seuss house, but said she did so in the spirit of curiousity. "I just went down to see how theirs was coming along," Fitzgerald said as she considered last-second adjustments to her lighting. It's coming along just fine. With Foley jiggling a remote control, a robotic Santa Claus rolls down the driveway carrying treats for kids enjoying the lights. The song Welcome Christmas from the soundtrack to the Grinch cartoon rings from speakers over the yard. "We didn't have half this much last year," Foley said, his house glowing in the background. "Maybe it will be enough."
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