Henderson residents share holiday spirit with festive lights

Salvatore Coco and Victor Leoncavallo light up their Henderson neighborhood with about 25,000 lights.

From Mickey Mouse and Goofy to Santa Claus and reindeer, the homes at 801 and 803 Seclusion Circle attract more than 120 spectators a night.

“We turn the lights on at 5 p.m.,” said Coco’s wife, Lucille. “By the time I get home from work, there’s a line of cars waiting to see the lights.”

While Coco has always decorated his home, he began stepping up his game when Leoncavallo and his family moved next door a few years ago.

“We’ve always done something mild and put some lights around the trim, but I just started getting in deeper and deeper,” Coco said. “When my neighbor moved in, we started going back and forth, and now we light up the whole block.”

In order to store all the decorations, Coco uses two sheds and the attic above his garage.

“I start decorating in the middle of November and do about four or five hours a day until it’s complete,” Coco said. “Since I have cacti, I have to be very careful. I should show you all the holes in my fingers.”

The decorating and planning is never-ending. Just after completing the final touches to the yard, Coco purchased two retro Disney items on eBay that he plans to display this year.

“It looks easy when everything is sitting up there, but it really is a lot of work,” Coco said. “It’s all worth it because I enjoy seeing the people happy.”

Coco said a Clark County School District employee told him she stops by his house almost every night because her children enjoy looking at the lights.

“One night, she came knocking on the door with a 3-foot-tall Mickey Mouse and said that she wasn’t going to use it and knew she wanted to donate it to us,” Coco said. “It’s adorable. I put a Santa hat and a red bow on him and put him up in the yard.”

Despite the cost and time of decorating, Coco plans to continue just to please the neighborhood children.

“My bill just doubles and triples during this time of year, but it’s worth it to see the look on kids’ faces,” he said. “They just light up like a Christmas tree.”

MAGICAL FOREST

There’s a special kind of magic in the air during the holidays, and Henderson resident Diane Bell tries to capture it in her magical forest-themed lights.

About 5,000 lights adorn Bell’s home in the gated Highland Glen community, near Arroyo Grande Boulevard and Santiago Drive.

“My bill runs so high in the summer months that it actually drops down tremendously in the cooler months,” she said. “So, if there is an increase during the holidays, I don’t notice it. Plus, I try to buy lights that are energy -saving and whatnot.”

Bell starts hanging lights the first week of November but doesn’t turn them on until Thanksgiving. Throughout the decorating process, she runs trial lightings and asks her family for their opinions.

“I love the thrill of competition, and I want to make sure everything is perfect,” she said. “I’ve had people stop me and ask me where I got decorations and lights, but I don’t want to tell them because I don’t want people to copy me. It’s all in good fun, though.”

While her husband helps hang lights with the ladder, Bell said she enjoys decorating by herself.

“I’m pretty stubborn because I want to do it all on my own,” she said. “I just find it so fun and exciting, and I love being creative with it.”

In addition to the outside, Bell puts as much energy into decorating the inside of her home.

“I usually have two Christmas trees, but this year I only have one. Everything inside is red and green,” Bell said. “This is my thing, I love Christmas decorating.”

Contact Henderson View reporter Caitlyn Belcher at cbelcher@viewnews.com or 702-383-0403.

OUTDOOR HOLIDAY DECORATING CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The city of Henderson’s Commemorative Beautification Commission announced the winners for its 2014 Outdoor Holiday Decorating Contest Dec. 12.

Winners for the Children’s Theme were Dave and Laurie Christian, 541 Junebug Place; Mike, Brenda and Aaron Cotton, 1765 Quiver Point Ave.; and Bob and Peggy Saco, 821 Seco Verde Ave.

Best Holiday Theme winners were Shannon Erickson, 1161 Paradise Safari Drive; Dixon and Joyce Corry, 1141 Glacier Park Court; and Stan Berger, who wished to withhold his address.

Winners for Most Innovative were Kenneth Moorhead, 742 Triple Crown St.; the Hall family, 1054 Desert Olive Court; and Jason Gacek, 249 Sedona Cedar Ave.

Winners for the best Griswold theme inspired by the film “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” were Frank Amoruso and Cristian Taylor, 726 Panhandle Drive; Johnny and Natasha Ritzer, 16 Spur Cross Circle; The Holmes Family, 337 Shimmering Moon St.; and the Paynes Family, 2246 Maple Shade St.

Street/neighborhood competition winners were residents of Quiver Point Avenue, near Paseo Verde Parkway and Valle Verde Drive; residents of Mazatlan Street and Virgin Island Avenue, near Windmill Parkway and Arroyo Grande Boulevard; and residents of Broken Arrow Court, near Silver Springs Parkway and Valle Verde Drive.