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Mostly Cloudy Christmas dream house dazzles in Valley Stream
José Perez spent more than $70,000 to have his Guenther Avenue house shine with Christmas lights and decorations, fulfilling a dream he had as a child.
“I was just doing it little by little,” Perez said. “I was just thinking, ‘How could it look pretty?’”
His wife and cousins helped install the decorations, which include animals, lights, a nativity set and handmade miniature farm and city scenes — even a scaled-down Empire State Building. The house appears dark at first, but as a visitor walks up, it comes to life with Christmas lights and music.
“It’s exciting for us, because all the family was working on it,” said Shellin Maroquin, Perez’s wife. “Everybody brought new ideas.”
Perez, 35, said that ever since he was a child, he wanted to have a decorated house representing the birth of Jesus and the effect that event had on the world, but his parents could not afford it. When he bought his house in Valley Stream three years ago, he decided to make his dream real.
The first year in the house, however, Perez said, he only put up a few lights. Last year, he put up some more, and this year he decorated almost every part of his lawn with lights, animal statues, Santa figurines and various miniature scenes.
Perez started by hanging lights around the trees in his front yard in October, posting a “Merry Christmas” sign on his home and adding Santa Claus to the roof. Next, he and his family put light-up animals, a nativity scene and miniature sculptures on the lawn. It took them a month and a half to decorate.
When it was completed on Nov. 30 at 10:30 p.m., Perez and his wife had a lighting ceremony. Forty people came to watch. “There were a lot of people from the Jewish community, Italians [and] Hispanics,” he said.
The next night, Stacey Gipson Vecchione, a moderator for the Valley Stream News Facebook Page, posted about the house. “Very beautifully decorated house on Guenther and Meyer. It looks like the Griswold’s house from ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas [Vacation],’” she wrote, referring to the 1989 film starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo.
The post inspired Valley Stream resident Simona Simone to visit the house with her children. She said that her kids enjoyed the displays, and the tiny version of the Empire State Building. She also said that it was “not too much or too little. Just [the] right amount of decorations.”
Since then, others have stopped at the corner of Guenther and Meyer daily. Perez said that on Dec. 16 alone, 62 people showed up. His 8-year-old niece, Alexandra Lopez, told each guest they could walk around and take photos. “Everyone can go in,” Perez said. “This is for everyone.”
For his friend Sergio Lopez, the house represents a dream come true. “When I watch this house, I feel like it’s really Christmas,” Lopez said. “[Jose] makes me believe more in Christmas.”
Perez created a slideshow of the display, set to Spanish Christmas music. In the video’s description, he describes his house as a “Casa magica Navidena,” or a Christmas magic house. To watch, visit bit.ly/2z06DrD.
