Early Christmas decorators say they spark neighbors into action

Tom Paullin spent several hours Saturday hanging lights outside his family’s home in Vancouver’s Felida neighborhood. (Photos by Steven Lane/The Columbian)

Anthony Roberts hangs Christmas lights in a tree outside his home Saturday in Vancouver.

We went scavenging for the Griswolds. Craned our necks out the car for those grizzled dads and their prized trees and lights, competing to suck the juice from Clark Public Utilities sockets.

We drove to the Felida neighborhood, worrying along the way that this year’s mania for sustainability — and this weekend’s Civil War game — might discourage even the most Chevy Chase of them all. Thankfully, not so.

Every year, Tom Paullin says, his manicured neighborhood gets “pretty lit up.” Paullin moved to Clark County from Spokane five years ago. On Saturday, he was kept company by his Golden Retriever, Jake, who joyously whacked standing candy canes with his wagging tail.

“Typically, we put the lights up after Thanksgiving, but we don’t turn them on too soon because it’s still Thanksgiving,” Paullin said. He stuck to the basics: webby white lights for the bushes, red lights for the roof line and the aforementioned lighted canes.

Across the street, Michael Nelson said he’d been nudged out of the house by his wife, who wouldn’t suffer his bah, humbug attitude.

“The kids used to like to help me, but I can’t get them out of the house these days,” he said. (Those kids are 15 and 11. If memory serves, teens and tweens have more pressing affairs than helping Dad with home glitterfication).

But Nelson’s outdoor presence has inspired other neighbors.

“Usually when a few of us start putting lights up, it sparks interest and the others grudgingly come out,” he said. Plus, he said, the holiday lights chore usually serves as an excuse to clean out the gutters.

Neighbor Jenny Roberts, the principal at Pioneer Elementary, turns holiday decorating into a family tradition. She and her husband, Anthony Roberts, woke at 6:30 a.m. Saturday. They pulled out their full-sized Santa Claus from storage, where he’ll stand guard at the doorway with a sack of toys.

They brought out the artificial 12-foot tree, and their son, Christopher Roberts, and his friend, Julia Scott, sprayed smaller trees with canned snow.

Jenny Roberts was raised by her mother to spend the Thanksgiving weekend preparing for December. She bought the tree and the Santa from Costco, but says she’ll also pretty up items purchased at garage sales.

The Roberts have several nativity collections — one is Dutch-themed, another African-themed — and on Christmas, their children, Christopher Roberts and Alysha Wilson, read the story of Jesus’s birth in the Bible.

“We try to balance the true meaning of Christmas and Santa,” Jenny Roberts said.

Isolde Raftery: 360-735-4546 or isolde.raftery@columbian.com.