Candy Cane House brings holiday sweetness to Henderson

When Victor Cardenas’ husband Joey Cardona survived a cancer diagnosis three years ago, they decided to give back by decorating their suburban Henderson home inside and out with dozens of ornamented Christmas trees, thousands of lights and free tours to raise funds for their favorite charity benefiting the homeless.

“For him to know that there’s more beauty to life and we want to share that,” Cardenas said of the couple’s decision to decorate and share their home.

On Dec. 9, for the third straight holiday season, they showcased the latest version of their over-the-top holiday-motif attraction, called the Candy Cane House, at 366 S. Milan St., just east of Heritage Park near South Racetrack Road.

On Friday evening, parked cars lined both sides of the street outside the home. Small groups of people including families made their way through the home all the way into the backyard. Nearly every available space not needed for walking was covered in decorations.

Cardona said more than 2,000 people walked through their home last weekend.

Julia and Jessie Magdaleno came to the Candy Cane House with their 8-year-old son, Leo. It was the first time the Henderson family had come to the house. Leo described the house as big, nice and cool.

“The marshmallows. Just the best,” he said of his favorite part of the experience.

His mom heard about the house at her work and thought it would be a fun and free activity for a Friday night.

“This is amazing. You’re just going to let all these people into your home? But this is nice, this is beautiful and must have taken hours and hours,” Julia Magdaleno said. “Just the themes, the different rooms and the themes are really, really nice.”

Cardenas stood at the front door greeting people as they walked in, and Cardona stood in the kitchen chatting with people as they made their way through the house.

People share with them about how they’re doing and said the decorations provide inspiration through tough times, Cardenas said.

“They tell us their story. They cry, they hug us and they’re like ‘Thank you,’ and it’s kind of cool to feel that,” he said.

The walk-through is free, but the duo urges the public to bring household items, gift cards or cash to donate to HopeLink of Southern Nevada, a service provider to the homeless.

HopeLink plans to use the donations from Candy Cane House “to support families and seniors in Henderson who may be struggling financially with bills, rent or housing in general,” said Stacey Lockhart, the organization’s chief executive officer.

This year, the house features more than 50 decorated Christmas trees, 38,000 lights, inflated nutcracker soldiers, illuminated reindeer and red-striped mints, uniquely themed rooms, figures, dolls and ornaments based on holiday movies such as the “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

“The more people support us the more excited we are to do more and share more and do things different every year,” Cardona said.

He said they began decorating Nov. 1.

Hot chocolate and other treats are available for attendees, as well as photo opportunities.

Cardenas and Cardona will open their house to the public on Sunday, Thursday and Friday, from 6 to 9 p.m., and Christmas Day, from 7 to 9 p.m.

“People made fun of me because I was like a kid every Christmas,” Cardona said. “Now I’m seeing everyone else my age have the same look, the same smile and that they’re happy. Everyone’s happy and it makes me happy.”

Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @davidwilson_RJ on Twitter. Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.