The House on Emerson Street

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As a child, one of my best friends was Jenny. She lived with her mother and grandmother  a street and a half behind me. (Her back door was on a side street that ran off the street behind mine.) Her house was on the town line, making her neighbors across the street from a different town.

In this town, around the corner from Jenny's house and her across-the-street neighbors, was Emerson Street. Because of one Christmas-loving resident, Emerson Street would glow in the sky like an airfield on the horizon during the holiday season.

Since I was smaller than Phantasma, I would go check out the house every year.And every year, since holiday decorating technology advances, the decorations grow. Now the house, front, and back yards are a mix of old and new.

Also the epitome of tack. But I'd be lying if I said that I didn't love it. There's a hidden beauty in it's tackiness because you know that they put thought to where everything will land from the Santa that protects the driveway to the nativity scene on the front lawn. The house is a piece of holiday art.

When I was out taking these pictures, I was with my dad. He told me a little known fact about the Emerson Street house. The inside is just as crazy as the outside with a Christmas tree in every room of the house (at least that was the case when the homeowner's children were growing up.) The guy that lives here loves Christmas so much that he makes the entire house a shrine to Christmas. I'm not sure if that is overkill or awesome.





There is a rival to the magnificence of Emerson Street, though. About a 30 second drive and around yet another corner, sits Mini Me. This house has been adding to the display for a few years, but it takes commitment to have as many lights as the house on Emerson Street and dare I say - an expendable budget?

So the rival house isn't impressive, especially with the backdrop of Emerson Street still glowing mightily. There's a scattering of big outdoor Christmas lights strung on bushes and a few lawn ornaments scattered on the ground, but everyone needs to start somewhere. They do get an A for effort and the cutest polar bear lawn ornament I've ever seen.







There's only a couple of days left until Christmas. Send me pictures of the displays you've seen.