Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Season's Greetings: Sign printer Rey Giese created the Willow Ranch snowman in the 1950s for one of his customers, and the outdoor decoration become a tradition in the Willow Glen community. Giese is still making the cutout snowmen for new residents.

Frosty the Snowman

Simple decorations are part of Willow Ranch tradition

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Amid the bright lights, animatronic reindeer and blow-up Santa Claus snow globes, a quiet neighborhood in Willow Glen celebrates the winter holiday with a more nostalgic approach.

The Willow Ranch neighborhood, which consists of Cottle and Westgate avenues and is bounded by Husted Avenue and Koch Lane, shares its holiday cheer with neighbors and passersby alike with a rather low-tech approach to the holidays. Each lawn is donned with a hand-painted wooden snowman holding a "Season's Greetings" sign bearing the name of the homeowner, with a gloved hand outstretched in a permanent wave.

The snowmen were painted in the 1950s by sign painter Rey Giese for the homes' original owners. These whimsical characters were inherited by subsequent homeowners, said Willow Ranch resident Jim Zetterquist.

As the former president of the San Jose Preservation Action Council, Zetterquist became interested in the Christmas decorations when he first moved into the neighborhood in 1979.

"The snowmen are great artifacts that tell us how people decorated their homes in the past," Zetterquist says. "Holiday decorations are way flashier now."

Most of the snowmen on display are reproductions of the originals, Zetterquist says, but, like the originals, Giese did most of the reproductions.

"I actually made a cutout by tracing a neighbor's snowman and had Rey paint it for me," Zetterquist says.

These frosty reminders of the holidays are unique to the Willow Ranch neighborhood.

"The snowmen are part of keeping a long tradition of Christmases past alive," Zetterquist says.

For Robert and Carol Ferreri, the tradition was something they wanted to be part of. The couple bought their Cottle Avenue home in 1993, but didn't inherit the coveted snowman.

"We used one of our neighbor's snowmen as a template to create two more for ourselves," says Carol Ferreri. "I painted them myself."

Ferreri says it was important to her family to be part of the Willow Ranch motif.

"Traditions are very important for the young people," she says. "It's important to share this nostalgia with the kids."

New to the neighborhood, Butch Kirk also fell for the allure of the nostalgic snowmen.

The previous owners of Kirk's home held an estate sale just before the transfer of the home. Among the items up for grabs was an original snowman.

A neighbor across the street from the home saw the snowman and urged the former owners to leave the relic with the home.

"I'm a spiritual kind of guy," Kirk says.

Superstitions of ghosts aside, he was pleasantly surprised when he discovered the snowman and plans to keep the holiday decoration with the house.

Like most artifacts, however, the snowman is in need of some loving care.

"Its head is kind of broken, and it needs to be repainted," he says.

Kirk is fixing the snowman's head but is leaving the painting to the professional.

"We are having it repainted by Rey himself," he says.

The original painter and creator of the snowmen hasn't been to the Willow Glen neighborhood in 10 years, but a phone call from Kirk piqued his curiosity.

According to Giese, the first resident to have a snowman made by him was Ed Parish, a resident of Westgate Avenue during the early 1950s.

"He was a big customer of mine," Giese says.

Before Parish even put the cutout on his lawn, he shared his new holiday décor with a few of his neighbors, and four other residents were impressed.

"The neighbors then contacted me to do snowmen for them," Giese says.

The demand for his snowmen grew over time, and kept Giese busy painting holiday décor for the neighborhood on and off for the next four decades. He still enjoys painting the simple familiar piece for the holidays.

Decorations today consist mostly of lights and blow-up decorations.

"But there's nothing that will equal hand-painted artwork by a good professional," Giese says.

The blown-up decorations and animatronics lack that warmth and realistic feel that traditional painted pieces have, he says.

The knowledge that his original artwork has inspired a long-running tradition makes Giese smile.

"I feel good that people still have my artwork up," he says. "It makes me feel that I did something worth keeping, worth using that continues to be put out year after year."

The humble snowmen of Willow Ranch have become a symbol for keeping things uncomplicated in the neighborhood.

"It's been a long tradition at Willow Ranch to keep things fairly simple during the holidays," Zetterquist says.

Along with the signature snowmen, neighbors decorated the black walnut trees with ribbon to look like stripped candy canes when Zetterquist first moved to the neighborhood 27 years ago. The same decor was added to the mailboxes, and holiday lights would consist of single strands lining the gables of the homes.

The neighborhood used to have progressive holiday parties in the 1950s where neighbors would go door to door exchanging holiday treats such as baked goods and drinks. The neighborhood still carries on this tradition.

Jak Kirtland has lived on Cottle Avenue for 42 years and says these holiday gatherings help establish connections and are a way to continue traditions.

"We all have traditions, and they are something that provides stability," Kirtland says. "They are a good thing. They bring back memories."