Santa Claus will not have any difficulty locating one Westview family’s home this year.
Linda and Ron Diprose’s house on Manitoba Avenue stands out with trees and home wrapped in colourful lights and various Christmas inflatables spread across both front and back lawns. As true mountain-bike advocates and trail builders, the Diproses have also placed a decorated bike atop their roof.
They are self-proclaimed Griswolds and have made a family tradition of watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve when their adult children come home. Ron’s son-in-law, a hockey fan, gave him a Chicago Blackhawks’ jersey with the name Griswold across the shoulders.
They’ve been doing this for the past 15 years and each year they expand their display just a little more. Their neighbours keep encouraging them, said Linda.
Ron said he started putting decorations up at the end of November this year and one of his neighbours approached him to say that he was wondering if they were going to do it again. He admits this year was the earliest that he’s started decorating, and in years prior he has waited until the first or second week of December to set it up.
Julian Welp, who decorates Powell River’s tallest Christmas tree on Alberni Street, works for the forest service during the summer as a tree faller. He helped Ron put the lights up in his tall fir trees.
“Linda figures that I’m part crow and attracted to bright shiny things,” said Ron. “I’ve always liked bright lights and weird fluorescent stuff.”
Inside the house they have built a winter village display in the hearth that lights up and has an electric train built into it. Ron and Linda have been collecting winter village buildings for the last 10 years and it has spread from around the fireplace to include the tops of most of their living room side tables.
“We just started off collecting a few of them in the back and we went from there,” said Linda.
This year both kindergarten classes from Westview Elementary School came to visit the Diproses’ home to see the train and village. Teacher Lorraine Taylor said the children have been reading Chris Van Allsburg’s holiday classic The Polar Express in class. “It’s great,” said Taylor. “They would never have had this opportunity. It’s so special.”
A large part of the living room is taken up by the Christmas tree which is also lit up and sparkles. “He’s always liked the big Christmas tree,” said Linda. “I could tell you some Christmas tree stories like you wouldn’t believe.”
Ron worked in the forest service and used to go over to Texada Island for the white pines, but recently he and Linda have gone to a local Christmas tree farm.
“I never let him out there unsupervised,” said Linda. “I did that one year and he came home with this 14-foot tree and we have only a nine-foot ceiling in our house. Now I always go with a measuring tape.”
