Paul Sakuma/Associated Press
Posted on 11/27/2004 5:59:25 AM PST by Pharmboy
Paul Sakuma/Associated Press
Alan Aerts of Monte Sereno, Calif., once put up elaborate Christmas displays that drew thousands of
visitors. Now he has only a singing Grinch that points to neighbors who complained about the traffic.
MONTE SERENO, Calif., Nov. 26 (AP) - For six years, Alan and Bonnie Aerts transformed their Silicon Valley home into a Christmas wonderland, complete with a surfing Santa, jumbo candy canes and a carol-singing chorus of mannequins.
Visitors loved it. Last year, after NBC's "Weekend Today" featured the $150,000 display of custom-designed props, more than 1,500 cars prowled the Aertses' cul-de-sac in this upscale San Jose suburb each night.
This year, though, the merry menagerie stayed indoors. Instead, on the manicured lawn outside the couple's home stands a single tiding: a 10-foot-tall Grinch with green fuzz and beet-red eyeballs.
The Aertses erected the smirking giant to protest the couple across the street - Le and Susan Nguyen, 16-year residents who initiated complaints to city officials that the display was turning the quiet neighborhood into a Disneyesque nightmare.
Mr. Aerts, who makes sure the Grinch's spindly finger points directly to the Nguyens' house, says the complaints killed the exhibit. They also violated the Christmas spirit, he said.
"When I grew up, people decorated everything - it was wonderful to be a kid," said Mr. Aerts, 48, a soft drink distributor. "If you can't even put up a display these days, what kind of people have we become?"
The Nguyens say that even after the Aertses hired a security guard to help direct traffic, the commotion kept them from having friends over for their own lower-key celebrations.
"We wake up to Christmas for about 45 days of the year," said Mr. Nguyen, 55. "You ever seen the movie 'Groundhog Day?' It's just like that."
After the Nguyens collected 90 signatures of protest from residents, the City Council voted to require a permit for any exhibit lasting longer than three days.
After studying the application process, the Aertses decided the usual display was not worth the hassle.
So Mr. Aerts commissioned the $2,500 motorized Grinch statue, which waves its arms and emits steam as a raspy tenor belts out, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."
Ms. Nguyen, 52, is unmoved.
"It was oppressive," she said of the old spectacle. "Maybe not if you just spent 10 minutes admiring it from your car, but if you lived next door, it was definitely oppressive."
Were I the neighbor, I would have probably done the same thing.
I'm with you. Sounds very excessive. I feel for the neighbors, they had to live with the noise and commotion non-stop.
To bad they couldn't work something out, but i can see how it could be disruptive.We have a few homes in my area w/ very elaborate xmas deco's. They look like mini disney's at night.Kind of a block party atmosphere. Complete w traffic jams + people w video cams/cameras tromping thru neighbors yards trying to get a good shot.
I'm with the "Grinchlike" neighbor.
Imaging just trying to get home at night after a long day at work, having to crawl through the traffic to get to your own driveway.
Imagine trying to back out of your driveway after dark and get to a family member's or a friend's house while tens or hundreds of people are trying to walk or drive by your neighbor's house to see his Christmas display.
I think that the display of Christmas spirit is nice, but this guy really should have had more consideration for his neighbors. If he had, the display probably would not have been banned. Something more appropriate might have been "on Saturday and Sunday nights, from 8pm to 11pm" or some such. For him to dismiss his neigbors as "Grinches" because they object to a display that attracts hundreds of people to the neighborhood is the same kind of juvenile namecalling that the Left has been engaging in for years. I think any reasonable person would complain.
I wonder if the Aerts vote demonrat?
I was a little surprised by that. I expected at least one post from the crowd that says, "It's his property, he can store nuclear waste on it in the middle of a residential neighborhood if he wants."
Agreed; but, while we all believe in individual rights, the Golden Rule is also popular here. And, especially around Christmas, that should take precedence.
Hardly. Nguyen is a whiner. I was undecided until he used the word "oppression" to describe his plight. Oppression is being beaten for worshiping Christ. Having to endure a plastic Santa or two next door, and some visitors in your neighborhood for a few weeks is not oppression .
I'm sure if he had it to do over again, he would have bit his lip and endured. Now he’s famous for being a grouch. He gets to share history with the hag that shut down a little girl's lemonade stand via complaint to authorities.
I wonder if the Aerts vote democrat?
It’s far more likely that Mr. Nguyen does.
I was a little surprised by that. I expected at least one post from the crowd that says, "It's his property, he can store nuclear waste on it in the middle of a residential neighborhood if he wants."
Like endangering others lives and generating a little noise, light and merriment are comparable.
What he was objecting to was the constant traffic and noise in a residential area. They even needed to bring in a person to direct traffic. I'm not sure any of us would have wanted our street turned into this kind of circus for a month.
I love Christmas and all the attendant decorations and celebrations that go with it; however, I think that consumerism has gotten out of control----excess and vulgarity is not what Christmas is about. But, hey, that's my own interpretation and Mr. Aerts is free to interpret the season in his own, unique fashion. Still, if I had a neighbor who partied hearty till 2 a.m. every night, so that my own, normal life was interrupted, I would obviously ask him to tone it down. I think Mr. Aerts should have tried to see the point of view of the neighbors (I'll bet the Nguyens weren't the only ones who minded his display). Instead of literally pointing the finger at them, he might have simply tried to work it out like a good neighbor. Now, he just seems petty and mean-spirited----not the Christmas spirit he was originally attempting to convey.
Spoken like a statist who favors government regulation of private property rights. You just draw the line at a slightly different place than me.
I'm confused. Which party in this dispute is attempting to use the state to govern how the other uses his private property?
It all depends on how predisposed one is to being annoyed at the sight of others enjoying themselves, and how predisposed one is to viewing themselves as the victim in any situation.
I'm sure the "Circus" shut down at a reasonable time each night, and if it didn't, there were surely nuisance ordnances in place to deal with it. Instead there is yet another city ordnance regulating the daily lives of the citizenry.
Well, if you wouldn't mind your neighbor doing something in his yard that drew 1500 cars slowing down in YOUR cul-de-sac, then you are a very understanding individual. Zoning laws and residential property do protect, and some laws are necessary. We do have the right to be left alone.
If you lived in Nguyen's house I wonder what your perspective would be. You would need to be more understanding than I would.
The 90 put upon citizens are using the power of the state to limit the property rights of one self centered yuppie.
"I was a little surprised by that. I expected at least one post from the crowd that says, "It's his property, he can store nuclear waste on it in the middle of a residential neighborhood if he wants."
Aww, come on...no faith in your fellow FReepers? Common sense and courtesy seem to be the watchword for most people here at FR. I can't imagine that they do less in their dealings with the rest of the world!
Although a little nuke waste might make for some nice holiday special effects...
My extended family insists on having get-togethers at my house in part because the neighborhood is so festive.
I'm not much of a decorator on the outside but on the inside, I have floor-to-ceiling Christmas lights throughout the entire downstairs and on up to the upstairs hallways. You can spend December at my house without having to turn a single light on because the Christmas lights throw off so much light on their own.
I say the Nguyens need to lighten up and get into the spirit. Go with the flow.
Sorry but I thought this was a fishing story gone bad......
LOL!! Excellent...you're living up to your name tonight.
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