Let there be (Christmas) lights! | Mann Overboard

By Bill Mann
Posted 12/25/24

Things are getting brighter here in Port Townsend, where we get lit up every holiday season, and then some. It’s one of our seasonal treats during this dark season. 

A fine way to …

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Let there be (Christmas) lights! | Mann Overboard

Posted

Things are getting brighter here in Port Townsend, where we get lit up every holiday season, and then some. It’s one of our seasonal treats during this dark season. 

A fine way to enhance celebrating the holiday season hereabouts is as simple as taking a drive. 

One to view all the Christmas lights. 

Each year, I hop in the — what else? — hybrid and drive around town, checking out all the work some of our most illuminating enthusiasts have produced on their lawns, windows, and roofs. Most of our lovely local lighting displays I list below are annual delights, good well into the new year. As usual, I’ve graded them and must also admit there are undoubtedly  =numerous lovely displays I may have missed. Apologies. So here are the best I’ve spotted … don’t miss these: 

 — Sheridan Street between 19th and Hastings: There are several lovely displays in this stretch, more than last year. The big Snoopy display is one highlight. B-Plus.

— Thomas Street, off of Ninth: This one scores! It’s the annual display aimed at us Seahawks fans: A large 12 (for the 12th man, of course) in blue lights appears on the garage roof, with plenty of other yard lighting treats on the sidelines. B.

— A grand entrance: The lighting display alongside Highway 20 at Mill Road is even bigger this year…the thousands of blue LED bulbs are even more plentiful and more striking now…this flashy display reminds one of the mega-LED spectacular down at the Blyn casino. A flashy way to enter PT. A

— Lopez off San Juan Ave. This colourful display at the south end of Lopez, even though it’s missing its lighted car this year, offers an eye-popping burst of color. A-Minus

— Tyler at F: Lovely Victorian candles in the windows: B

— East end of Lawrence: A pretty, electric Christmas tree, a bit smaller than those in the past.  B

— Jackson at Lawrence: A lovely lighted tree: B-Plus

— Point Hudson moorage: there are more lighted yacht masts here than in the past. B. 

— Biggest disappointment: That lovely, glassy Renaissance Lighting store near the 2nd roundabout as you enter town has, alas, again gone dark. It used to be one of the prettiest and biggest displays. (No grade.)

— Second Prize Overall: The lovely light-garlanded house out on Hastings just west of Sheridan. Park in the New Life Church lot across the street for the best view. A. 

— And finally, our perennial Grand Prize winner: This flashy, eye-popping display, just off San Juan on McNeill St.  between 22nd and 23rd, is so pulsating and bright it could induce a seizure. It’s our own Griswold House, after Chevy Chase’s overdone Clark Griswold eye-blasting display in the ubiquitous National Lampoon Christmas movie. This local PT nonpareil display offers a light high atop a tree, and several brilliantly lit, changing displays … not to mention its own radio station at 89.1. The owner, who worked weeks setting this high-tech display up, used to have a hot apple cider booth across the street. When that left, he handed out candy canes. Not now. But what remains is well worth a gawk-worthy drive. Again this year, it gets a well-deserved A-plus. (I offer holiday condolences to the flashing-light-besieged house across the street. )

 — Another star at Christmas: The past two weeks have been Christmas Office Party time for many of you.

One such holiday gathering I won’t forget came 20 years ago when I was a columnist at the Oakland Tribune. 

Our staff gathered at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Oakland in its large, darkened ballroom. 

I was standing on one side of the dance floor for a few minutes, and I noticed a rather short woman in a black suit, clutching her purse and standing to my left, smiling. I thought she looked vaguely familiar, even in a  dimly lit room. I finally decided to say hello and welcome. 

Then it hit me. She was one of our newspaper’s board of directors. It was… Shirley Temple Black. (Black died 10 years ago at age 85). 

 — A funny, seasonal sign that was a holiday fixture on most of the Army bases on which I lived as the son of a career officer: 

 “Merry Christmas — To Authorized Personnel Only.”

— Finally, time to dust off our PT-perfect best wishes: Happy Non-Sectarian Season’s Greetings. 

PT humorist and Santa fan Bill Mann can be reached at Newsmann9@gmail.com.