Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

The Tom Seaton home featured a brightly colored Christmas tree and reindeer.

A Holiday Scene

Decorating enthusiasts don't need a contest to turn on the lights

By Michelle Alaimo

It's that time of year when green lawns and rooftops are magically transformed into winter wonderlands. Residential streets are lit up nightly with the twinkle of colored lights and holiday scenes. And it's also that time of year when such festive decorations can earn Saratoga residents and business owners a place in Decorate Saratoga! history.

The annual Decorate Saratoga! competition, co-sponsored by the Odd Fellows Retirement Home & Health Care Center and the Saratoga News, kicked off this year's festivities with the placement of the first decorations around town after Thanksgiving, and finished last week with the judging of entrants' homes and businesses.

This year's fifth annual decorating contest brought some familiar faces, along with new participants--who have said they would still decorate their homes and businesses even if there were no contest.

This year's--and last year's--first-place winner in the residence category, Linda Parker, says she was brought up decorating their home for the holidays. She added that it takes a lot of patience--and two to three days' work--for her and her husband, Tom, to complete the decorating of her home at 14136 Okanogan Drive. The Parkers set up small scenes across their front lawn, from a polar bear and penguins to Mr. and Mrs. Claus greeting passersby. The Parkers even built a large stable to house their elaborate nativity scene.

The home of the second-place residence winners, Bill and Melodee Addison of 18960 Greenbrook Court, was brightly decorated with a colorful snowman, Disney cartoon characters and candy-cane cutouts. The Jolly Old Elf himself is also displayed, zooming across the front lawn with the reindeers' hooves barely skimming the Addisons' lawn.

Entrants in the annual contest are eligible to win gift certificates from local restaurants and, this year, prizes handmade by residents of the Odd Fellows Retirement Home. But, entrants say, prizes aren't the issue when it comes to the holiday season. Parker says she hasn't even used the gift certificate she won last year yet.

Parker says the prizes are nice, but she would decorate, no matter what.

Rick Ratra, owner of the Saratoga BP Service Center on the corner of Highway 9 and Big Basin Way and the contest's second-place business winner, echoed Parker's comments. Ratra says he decorates "to help make Saratoga's downtown more beautiful." This is the second year Ratra has decorated his station but the first year he has entered the contest. His strings of twinkling lights drape off the canopy of his BP station like multicolored icicles and took four days to put up, but Ratra says the effort is all about being in the spirit of the holidays.

The first-place business winner, The Front Window owner Kristin Davis, says she was excited she won, and putting up the decorations and entering the contest is always a lot of fun.

"It's a nice holiday tradition," Davis says. Her storefront is decorated with the classical look of delicate white lights and a wooden tree and stars above her storefront sign. Another tree hangs in Davis' window, gently spinning. Davis adds, "The cutest part [of the contest] is seeing the elderly people from the Odd Fellows looking out their bus windows."

Odd Fellows residents judge the contest. On Dec. 15 and 16, two full busloads of nearly 20 retirees took a tour of this year's entries, judging each one on a scale of one to five, says Geri Rush, administrator at the Odd Fellows Retirement Home. Judging was done over the course of two nights to allow as many people from the Odd Fellows as possible to have the opportunity to participate.

Winners were chosen on the basis of design, originality and use of color. This year's winners in the residence category were:

Tom and Linda Parker at 14136 Okanogan Drive, who received first place; Bill and Melodee Addison at 18960 Greenbrook Court, who earned second-place honors; Ronald and Betty Landrum at 14036 Saratoga Hills Road, who won third place; and Mr. and Mrs. Byron Harkey at 18743 Cabernet Drive, who took fourth-place honors.

In the business category, winners were: The Front Window at 12378 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road for first, Saratoga BP Service Center at 14395 Big Basin Way for second place and Bit' O'Country at 14527 Big Basin Way for third.

Each year, Rush says, the event takes a different turn. Last year, Santa Claus got on the bus with the judges, who have also been greeted by carolers in the past. The 1997 judging was equally eventful, with carolers again serenading the judges along part of their tour.

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