Homeowners work to bring holiday joy to their neighborhood

(23 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santa Clarita, California – 17 December 2024
1. People looking at lights
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Bryan Cobb, homeowner:
“It is over the top. The neighborhood started it many years ago after the Northridge earthquake to give back to the community to bring some joy."
3. People looking at lights
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Bryan Cobb, homeowner:
“The neighbors banded together to do the community lights overhead.”
5. Overhead lights
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Bryan Cobb, homeowner:
“And it takes us about four weekends. Saturdays, Sundays. There's about four to six of us, and it's about eight hour days.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mesa, Arizona – 12 December 2024
7. Decorated front yard
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephanie Castillo Price, homeowner:
“What this actually brings is essentially a festival of lights. Everybody has been able to take their interpretation of the holidays and put it into a full circle. So there's not somebody that's going to walk down the street and not feel included.”
9. Lights in front yard
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Javier Arias, Mesa Arizona resident:
“It's really family friendly. We've driven through here. We've walked through here many times. We love coming back and seeing what the neighbors have added to their house from a decoration standpoint."
11. SpongeBob house
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Javier Arias, Mesa, Arizona resident:
“It's and it's just it's just a really good community vibe here, too. And it's something, again, that's amazing to do around the holidays.”
13. Cactus with lights

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Las Vegas – 13 December 2024
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Walters and Lenny Standish
“We've been doing this for five years. We started at the height of Covid and we the ornament tree was kind of the thing that started the whole thing.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mesa, Arizona – 12 December 2024
15. Lights in yard

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Las Vegas – 13 December 2024
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Walters and Lenny Standish
“People were looking for someplace to go and to get out and still have a sense of community when we were not supposed to be gathering.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mesa, Arizona – 12 December 2024
17. Various cartoons as holiday lights

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Las Vegas – 13 December 2024
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Walters and Lenny Standish
“And it has just skyrocketed from there.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mesa, Arizona – 12 December 2024
19. Various star wars characters

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Las Vegas – 13 December 2024
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Walters and Lenny Standish
“And now it has moved into the neighborhood.”
21. Home with lights
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Walters and Lenny Standish
“It's been a labor of love, for sure. And and it is crazy when you have 2 or 300 people standing in front of your house."
23. Ornament tree
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Walters and Lenny Standish
“But it is. It is. It's amazing. Totally amazing.”
25. Ornament
26. Lights by sidewalk
27. Two homes with lights
28. Hoops
29. House with lights
STORYLINE:
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow might be enough to brighten some homes this holiday season. But others are adorned with thousands of blinking lights synched to blasting music.

In Mesa, Arizona, 14 homeowners have been going all-out on holiday lights for 30 years, and those buying homes in the neighborhood often find the attics full of décor left behind by previous owners.

In Santa Clarita, California, residents began coordinating their holiday lights to bring some joy to their community after an earthquake.



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