Yard Display's Neighbors Wish for a Silent Night
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:14 am
Just found this story. So, what are your opinions on this? Would a neighbor like this drive you crazy?
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Jeff Topping for The New York Times
Chris Birkett uses about 150,000 lights and plays Disney music for his "Winter Wonderland" display at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Neighbors have initiated charges against him.
COTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 25 - Silent night it wasn't.
At 6 o'clock on Friday, as a crystalline blue dusk descended over the desert valley, Chris Birkett began his nightly Christmas extravaganza, turning his modest house and yard into "Winter Wonderland," a blazing filigree of up to 150,000 lights forming Santas, reindeer, "Nutcracker" characters, snowflakes, stars and American flags, under puffs of soap bubbles and sprays of artificial snow.
With it came blaring Disney music and narration that echoed up and down the quiet residential block: "Do you believe in magic? Look to the sky and make a wish. Star light, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might."
The family next door wishes he would just shut up.
As Mr. Birkett, a boyish, crew-cut, 29-year-old disc jockey who plays weddings and bar mitzvahs, opened his annual one-man entertainment season in October with his "Haunted Graveyard," a computerized sound and light Halloween show, the neighbors, Alicia and Barry Majercin, initiated charges of malicious noise-making that now threaten to land Mr. Birkett in jail.
He has a date in Scottsdale city court on Jan. 20 and faces up to six months behind bars and a $2,500 fine. Still, his schedule calls for continuous Christmas shows at his home on East Montebello Street from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. nightly through New Year's Eve.
"I just love entertaining people," said Mr. Birkett, who predicted he would win his case but scurried about in a shirt with a prisonlike number, SC 12 25, and a message on the back: "Wanted for spreading Christmas cheer."
By his noise meter, he said, his shows measure no more than 64 decibels, quieter, he insists, than a human cough at close range. And he said the Majercins were told of his shows before they bought the house in April 2003.
Many others near and far, enchanted by Mr. Birkett's passion for theatrics if not notoriety, have rallied to his cause, feeding an uproar that news reports have now spread as far afield as Germany and Russia.
"It's like Vegas, without the buffet," said Jeff Amato, a local doctor, who came with his wife, Mary, and 2-year-old son, Michael, to gawk at the spectacle.
A lot seems to be at play here. The Majercins, whom Mr. Birkett has cast as Grinches and who posted a sign on their mailbox saying "No reporters please," say in a police report that the nightly assault of sound from Halloween to New Year's has cost them the most basic of rights, to be left at peace in their own home. No one answered their door on Christmas Eve, and they appeared to be away. (They have their own modest string of Christmas lights along their fence.)
Mr. Birkett, who says he has spent $4,000 for a special fence to muffle the sound and has even offered to buy the Majercins' house for $225,000, says that he is acting out of devotion to Jesus and the spirit of Christmas and that his freedoms were also at stake.
"I believe there are lots of rights they are taking away," he said. "Like we're being asked not to say 'Merry Christmas.' They want you to say 'Happy holidays.' "
He is all for people celebrating their religious holidays, he said, and pointed out a large stylized dreidel on his lawn as a tribute to Hanukkah.
He put the cumulative cost for the productions - going back some 19 years to when he was a schoolboy living with his parents - at $90,000. His Christmas display takes nearly a month of 20-hour days to install and seven days to take down, he said, and between seasons requires "large storage, big storage." Yet he said he had no interest in turning his hobby into a commercial enterprise. "It's making money off the holidays," he said.
Along with his nightly Christmas spectacle, Mr. Birkett plays Santa, treating children to stuffed toys from a large red bag.
Many of those who flock to the shows see him as a kind of spirit of Christmas under attack. Brian Adam, a local Web site technician, said he would be honored to live next door. "He would have to kick me off his property every holiday season," he said.
Jim Frank, who lives nearby, brought his 11-year-old grandson, Louden, who has leukodystrophy and uses a wheelchair.
"This gentleman goes to a lot of work to entertain," Mr. Frank said. He said Louden looked forward to coming every year. "He loves looking at all the lights," he said.
Mr. Birkett said that after he made 200 signs supporting "Winter Wonderland" and left them for the taking, they all showed up in neighbors' yards. He said he has also collected 6,500 signatures on a petition supporting him.
Letter writers have also sprung to Mr. Birkett's defense. "Scrooge is alive and not so well on Montebello," Karen Miller of Scottsdale wrote The Arizona Republic. "It is a very sad day in Scottsdale when a young man might have criminal charges filed against him when all he has done is to make the season brighter for so many people!"
But others disagreed.
"Chris Birkett of Scottsdale, with his monstrous light display, should be reminded that Jesus was born in a stable in a cave, and not in Disneyland," William S. Schindler of Peoria, Ariz., wrote the newspaper.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/27/natio ... &position=
Attached files
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Jeff Topping for The New York Times
Chris Birkett uses about 150,000 lights and plays Disney music for his "Winter Wonderland" display at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Neighbors have initiated charges against him.
COTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 25 - Silent night it wasn't.
At 6 o'clock on Friday, as a crystalline blue dusk descended over the desert valley, Chris Birkett began his nightly Christmas extravaganza, turning his modest house and yard into "Winter Wonderland," a blazing filigree of up to 150,000 lights forming Santas, reindeer, "Nutcracker" characters, snowflakes, stars and American flags, under puffs of soap bubbles and sprays of artificial snow.
With it came blaring Disney music and narration that echoed up and down the quiet residential block: "Do you believe in magic? Look to the sky and make a wish. Star light, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might."
The family next door wishes he would just shut up.
As Mr. Birkett, a boyish, crew-cut, 29-year-old disc jockey who plays weddings and bar mitzvahs, opened his annual one-man entertainment season in October with his "Haunted Graveyard," a computerized sound and light Halloween show, the neighbors, Alicia and Barry Majercin, initiated charges of malicious noise-making that now threaten to land Mr. Birkett in jail.
He has a date in Scottsdale city court on Jan. 20 and faces up to six months behind bars and a $2,500 fine. Still, his schedule calls for continuous Christmas shows at his home on East Montebello Street from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. nightly through New Year's Eve.
"I just love entertaining people," said Mr. Birkett, who predicted he would win his case but scurried about in a shirt with a prisonlike number, SC 12 25, and a message on the back: "Wanted for spreading Christmas cheer."
By his noise meter, he said, his shows measure no more than 64 decibels, quieter, he insists, than a human cough at close range. And he said the Majercins were told of his shows before they bought the house in April 2003.
Many others near and far, enchanted by Mr. Birkett's passion for theatrics if not notoriety, have rallied to his cause, feeding an uproar that news reports have now spread as far afield as Germany and Russia.
"It's like Vegas, without the buffet," said Jeff Amato, a local doctor, who came with his wife, Mary, and 2-year-old son, Michael, to gawk at the spectacle.
A lot seems to be at play here. The Majercins, whom Mr. Birkett has cast as Grinches and who posted a sign on their mailbox saying "No reporters please," say in a police report that the nightly assault of sound from Halloween to New Year's has cost them the most basic of rights, to be left at peace in their own home. No one answered their door on Christmas Eve, and they appeared to be away. (They have their own modest string of Christmas lights along their fence.)
Mr. Birkett, who says he has spent $4,000 for a special fence to muffle the sound and has even offered to buy the Majercins' house for $225,000, says that he is acting out of devotion to Jesus and the spirit of Christmas and that his freedoms were also at stake.
"I believe there are lots of rights they are taking away," he said. "Like we're being asked not to say 'Merry Christmas.' They want you to say 'Happy holidays.' "
He is all for people celebrating their religious holidays, he said, and pointed out a large stylized dreidel on his lawn as a tribute to Hanukkah.
He put the cumulative cost for the productions - going back some 19 years to when he was a schoolboy living with his parents - at $90,000. His Christmas display takes nearly a month of 20-hour days to install and seven days to take down, he said, and between seasons requires "large storage, big storage." Yet he said he had no interest in turning his hobby into a commercial enterprise. "It's making money off the holidays," he said.
Along with his nightly Christmas spectacle, Mr. Birkett plays Santa, treating children to stuffed toys from a large red bag.
Many of those who flock to the shows see him as a kind of spirit of Christmas under attack. Brian Adam, a local Web site technician, said he would be honored to live next door. "He would have to kick me off his property every holiday season," he said.
Jim Frank, who lives nearby, brought his 11-year-old grandson, Louden, who has leukodystrophy and uses a wheelchair.
"This gentleman goes to a lot of work to entertain," Mr. Frank said. He said Louden looked forward to coming every year. "He loves looking at all the lights," he said.
Mr. Birkett said that after he made 200 signs supporting "Winter Wonderland" and left them for the taking, they all showed up in neighbors' yards. He said he has also collected 6,500 signatures on a petition supporting him.
Letter writers have also sprung to Mr. Birkett's defense. "Scrooge is alive and not so well on Montebello," Karen Miller of Scottsdale wrote The Arizona Republic. "It is a very sad day in Scottsdale when a young man might have criminal charges filed against him when all he has done is to make the season brighter for so many people!"
But others disagreed.
"Chris Birkett of Scottsdale, with his monstrous light display, should be reminded that Jesus was born in a stable in a cave, and not in Disneyland," William S. Schindler of Peoria, Ariz., wrote the newspaper.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/27/natio ... &position=
Attached files