Festive celebrations take place through December

As the weather gets cooler and the days get shorter, anticipation builds for Christmas. Festive decorations begin to fill almost every home, upbeat Christmas songs play on the radio and cheerful lights are strung on houses and stores.

Christmas Tree Lane

In the central San Joaquin Valley, almost no place captures the joy and excitement of the holiday quite like Christmas Tree Lane. Christmas Tree Lane is celebrating its 94th anniversary this year and is one of the oldest and longest running holiday events in the nation.

The tradition began in 1920 with the decorating of a tree on the street to honor a child who had died. Since then, the street has been lit with thousands of lights each year, with the exception of 1941 due to wartime restrictions and in 1973 because of the energy crisis. This year visitor walking nights for the street are scheduled to be on Dec. 3 and Dec. 13.

Decorating for Christmas starts even before Halloween for chairman of Christmas Tree Lane, Dean Alexander. The whole process can be a hassle for Alexander, but he does it as a way to give back to the community.

“My favorite part about Christmas is the families,” Alexander said. “This is such a great event (Christmas Tree Lane). It is the Fig Garden Homeowners Association’s way of giving back to the community. One way of having the community get involved is by having lane keepers. Their job is to turn on and off all the lights for the lane as well as making sure that all the volunteers show up. The work that they do really helps me as well as gives them the pride of being able to participate.

“About two years ago the makers of the show, ‘The Great Christmas Light Fight’ contacted me and asked if my family wanted to be on the show,” Alexander continued. “Of course we said yes. I thought it would be fun and it would also give us national recognition. The whole process can get tiring, because it is very time consuming. However, I do really enjoy it once it is all put together.”  

Two years ago the Alexander family home was featured on ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight along with three other homes in the nation. They were competing for 50,000 dollars in a competition for the best all around decorated home. The families decorations include over 300,000 lights.

The Alexanders pulled out a win with great Christmas spirit as well as overall design and use of lights. All the winnings were put back into Christmas Tree Lane. The event also rose awareness across the nation to Fresno.  

Homeowner and former teacher at Fresno High School, (First name withheld) Spaulding looks forward to Christmas. Spaulding also likes working with tools and feels that his experience eases the process of setting up decorations.

“I really like everything when it comes to the Christmas season,” Spaulding said. “I have been living here (Christmas Tree Lane ) since 1985, and have enjoyed setting up decorations each year. I always look forward to being with family and don’t really get tired of setting up every year. I find joy in the joy the decorations bring to others, it’s not that bad.”

Cindy Lane

While Christmas Tree Lane is one of the most popular streets for decorating, a Clovis location also attracts hundreds of visitors each year for its amazing displays. Cindy Lane, often referred to as Candy Cane Lane (not to be mistaken with Candy Cane Lane in Visalia), features numerous houses decked out with lights and decorations that rival those of the more known Christmas Tree Lane.

Toby Rene, one of the original residents of the area, enjoys setting up for Christmas, but after doing it for so many years it is beginning to get old as it requires hours of hard work. Rene appreciates Cindy Lane because of the ‘kid-friendly’ environment is provides.

“I think Christmas Tree Lane and here are different,” Rene said. “I am very familiar with Christmas Tree Lane because I worked with the Sheriff’s Department for 30 years. The only thing I don’t like about that area is how dark it is. This (Cindy Lane) is open. It’s good for kids and young people because you don’t have to worry about people hiding in bushes or trees.”

Already the morning after Thanksgiving, the area buzzed with activity. At almost every house, families worked together putting up lights, building Christmas sets or sharing baked good and chatting with neighbors.

As a resident of the area for 22 years, Sandy Courtner has seen her fair share of Christmas on Cindy Lane.

“My favorite part about decorating for the Christmas season is probably the enjoyment that everyone else gets from it,” Courtner said. “We pretty much always start decorating the day after Thanksgiving. I know my husband started yesterday, but I’m a firm believer in that you don’t decorate before Thanksgiving.

“Everybody is really good about keeping up their yards and everything, which is important because the neighborhood really doesn’t look as old as it is,” Courtner continued. “Everyone just sort of decorations how they want to. I feel that we really don’t put pressure on anyone else, if somebody doesn’t want to decorate we don’t really say anything.”

During the holiday season, the community comes together to celebrate. Most residents do not compete to see who has the best decorated yard, nor do they get angry with their neighbors if they choose not to decorate.

Wendy Devers, who lives on Cindy Lane, believes the best part of the whole event is the opportunity to spend time with friends and neighbors as they decorate.

“In this neighborhood, I would have to say my favorite part about decorating is everybody coming out on the same day and getting to communicate and see your neighbors,” Devers said. “It’s nice to see everybody come out because during the year, everybody pulls into their garage, shuts their garage door and just waves to you as their garage door goes down. So today it’s like you actually get to see and talk to everybody. That is my favorite part about this whole time of the year.”

One resident on Cindy Lane who spends hours building Christmas sets and decorations is Jim Askew. Askew spends as long as forty hours on a single decoration.

“It’s (Christmas) a festive time of the year and it’s very social, everyone kind of keeps to themselves all year and then late December early November they come out and visit,” Askew said. “It didn’t really take that long to build everything. The ferris wheel took the longest because it was kind of complex. The wagon was pretty fast actually, it didn’t take very long at all, maybe forty hours to do that.”

As the holiday season continues to approach, many more events celebrating the season are available for those in the central valley. The 12th annual Children’s Electric Parade, hosted by the Old Town Clovis Kiwanis, is a community favorite that should not be missed. The parade offerers fun family events such as carriage rides. This year the parade is on Dec. 3, starting at 6:30 p.m. The 87th annual Downtown Fresno Christmas parade will also be on Dec. 3. 

Regardless of where and how you spend your Christmas, remember that it is not the Christmas trees, the decorations or the presents you receive that matter. Take time this holiday season to spend time with friends and family, and don’t forget to remember the true reason for the season.

How do students prepare for Christmas? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Christmas Tree Lane and Cindy Lane

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Mariana Fikse can be reached via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Braden bell can be reached via email: Braden Bell, Twitter: Braden Bell.