PASCACK VALLEY—The GFWC Paskack Junior Woman’s Club has announced the winners of its 2021 Holiday Lights Contest, and what amazing homes they are!
Organizers told Pascack Press the contest aimed to “encourage a sense of community and holiday spirit by rewarding Pascack Valley residents that go above and beyond in decorating their home for the winter holiday season. Each and every home that participated exhibited extraordinary enthusiasm for bringing holiday cheer. Their good will has brought so much joy to the community.”
Needed funds were raised for local charities.
Winning homes, with Paskack Junior Woman’s Club comments:
- First place: The Ward family, for their gorgeous home on Ridge Avenue in Park Ridge, with 495 votes. “Their beautiful home definitely fulfills the Clark W. Griswold Award and can probably be seen from outer space!”
- Second place: The Kaprielian family, for their home on Ridge Avenue in Park Ridge, with 470 votes. “The display wins the Traditional Award, as it captures classic holiday motifs. Truly dazzling to see!”
- Third place: The Fullam family on Jefferson Avenue in Emerson, with 445 votes. “They are the winner of the North Pole Award, with their amazing light display featuring creative lawn design and characters.”
We called to congratulate first-place winners John and Kate Ward on their Clark W. Griswold Award — named for Chevy Chase’s over- the-top Clark “Sparky” Griswold Jr., the protagonist of ‘Christmas Vacation” — and learned there was much more to their entry than their winning photo revealed.
“It doesn’t show most of the display. Our goal was to take people back in time to a 1960s Christmas. We had music of the time — Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, all those guys — playing in the background, and we had vintage light-up figurines, blow molds — our goal was to show people a different Christmas than they usually see nowadays, with all the bright LEDs and flashing lights and stuff.”
John Ward is 35 and drawn to midcentury Christmas decor. “It was a very cool time, and you heard stories from grandparents and older aunts and uncles. You kind of wish you did grow up in that time, around the holidays.”
He explains, “We actually do use all LEDs, but we managed to find bulbs identical to the incandescent, warm, big lights. That was a decade’s search.”
Overall, he says, the couple ran 11,000 lights and stood about 60 blow mold figures. Included were giant snowflake cutouts on the roof, a Santa’s workshop, an iceberg, and a hale and hearty “Merry Christmas, Park Ridge” sign.
The couple has been decorating big-time for Christmas for five years, since they bought the house.
“More me, than anything, because my wife thinks I’m crazy. But this is a culmination of what I think a great Christmas is. In 2022 we’re going to go even bigger,” he says.
John grew up in Ringwood, and Kate grew up in Suffern.
“She eggs me on, and says, ‘You need more lights over here. She gets my wheels spinning. Next thing you know there’s a box in the mail, or a trip to some garage sale,” John says.
He says his neighbors Matt and Paulina Kaprielian — who took second place, and the “Traditional” award, in the contest — are his and Kate’s partners on the search for the perfect find.
The Kaprielians, it must be noted, absolutely crush Halloween decorating in the borough. For more on that, see “Fun-raiser! Couple’s annual Halloween display draws chills for charity,” Pascack Press, Oct. 9, 2020.
Paskack Junior Woman’s Club donates its time and talents to serve Pascack Valley communities. For more information visit paskackjuniors.org.