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Holiday Displays Are Bright Escape Amid Economic Darkness

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

An inflatable Santa and snowman wave from the Tampa lawn of Jim Carson, who enjoys putting on a major display of Christmas lights each year.

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN | The Tampa Tribune
and KATHY STEELE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 23, 2008

TAMPA - Some neighborhoods this holiday season look brighter than ever — pockets of cheery lights that come as a surprise given the general economic gloom and the numbers of people tightening up on discretionary spending.

Other neighborhoods are, as may be expected, darker.

"In our neighborhood, people that never decorated are decorating," said Jim Carson, whose home on Streamside Drive in Meadow Glen (north of Linebaugh Avenue off Anderson Road) is lavishly outfitted. "Some who do usually decorate didn't."

Tampa Electric Co. and Progress Energy officials say they can't really tell whether more people are powering up light displays, but Carson can.

"We have about 100 houses in the neighborhood, and it's maybe a little more than last year" who are decorating, he said.

That includes some neighbors who didn't decorate in the past. He said he asked one about the turnabout.

"They said, 'We felt bad we can't buy gifts, but we want to share the joy of the decorations outside for other people.' "

The decorations are a gift, he said.

"A lot of people I notice have been driving by," he said. "They don't have it themselves maybe, so they want to see other people's."

Dave Huseman has noticed that, too.

Carloads of families munching on McDonald's takeout are parked in front of his New Tampa house each night with their radios tuned to 102.1 FM to watch and hear the show: a 12-song, 27,000-bulb computer-animated light fantastic created by Huseman and his 17-year-old son, Steven.

They've decorated their West Meadows house at 18929 Nest Fern Circle for eight or nine Christmases.

A Web site, www.husemanfamilylights.com, offers photos, video and fun statistics, like how many extension cords it takes to light such a display (100.)

The show costs a few thousand dollars to set up, takes countless hours of time and, before he switched to energy-efficient LED bulbs, usually meant an extra $100 a month on the electric bill.

But to the USA Today circulation manager, it just wouldn't be Christmas without it.

"It's turned into a year-round hobby," he said.

Planning and saving for next year have already begun, but Huseman is worried. Times are tough and getting tougher. He doesn't have to look far to see that.

"Our neighborhood is dark," he said.

Christmas at the Nick Diorio household is big. But not as big as it used to be.

At its holiday best, there were more than 25,000 lights illuminating two 15-foot Christmas trees, extra multicolored Christmas trees, a life-sized Santa, nearly a dozen reindeer, a polar bear, penguins, Frosty the Snowman, an animated drummer boy and a Nativity scene.

Diorio's family dubbed their home on East Linebaugh Avenue the "Gateway" to Hyaleah Road, which draws motor pools of holiday gawkers every year.

Joining in the holiday spirit seemed a natural when the Diorios moved into the neighborhood a few years ago. The fantasyland especially delighted Diorio's now 6-year-old grandson, Austin Baldwin.

But then it grew and grew, Diorio said, and "before I knew it, it was 20 hours of work."

He downsized this year to about 35 percent of his lawn, donating many of his lights and decorations to Metropolitan Ministries so people down on their luck could still sport a little holiday cheer.

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144. Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 259-7652.

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