ShareThisBy CAROLINE E. RUSE
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
The people of Lantana, Fla., rarely see snow. But that hasn't stopped homeowner Phil Imbrieco from having a white Christmas.
Imbrieco creates his own winter wonderland by spray-painting his yard white and then filling it with Christmas decorations.
His home is among the country's most outrageous Christmas houses selected by home and lifestyle network HGTV to explore on "What's With That Christmas House?" a one-hour special as part of its weekly series, "What's With That House?" The episode premieres Sunday, Dec. 10 at 9 p.m. (EST/PST).
"It's me going through the country looking at people's houses that just don't know when to say 'when'," says host George Gray, who also hosted "Weakest Link" and "Junkyard Wars," for which he shared a 2001 Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Ten houses from across America were selected through a vigorous search of Web sites and newspaper archives.
"I wanted each and every house to be a house that the average person would say, 'Wow, I've never seen a house that much decorated before,'" said co-executive producer Chris Poole.
On the regular series, a degree of neighborhood controversy usually surrounds the unusual houses, says Poole, but that hasn't been the case for the Christmas homes.
"I keep waiting for a Scrooge who hates Christmas _ who doesn't like the noise, doesn't want the lights," Gray said. "There's not been one person, in one neighborhood, one time."
One of the over-the-top homes, a mansion in Port Charlotte, Fla., features a handmade, three-tiered water display in its backyard pool. The illuminated, 16-foot-high jets of water set to music have been compared to the Bellagio water fountains in Las Vegas.
Across the front of the two-story home, which belongs to Bill Vanderslice, a retiree who has turned Christmas into a year-round project, installing three lighted animated dolphins and a reindeer "island" on his lawn, as well as covering the front entrance with more than 35,000 lights, including many draped around palm trees that frame the lawn.
"I haven't found anybody that's trying to one-up these Joneses," Gray says. "I thought it'd be one of those things where you'd get people to throw up a few more lights, but nobody in any of the neighborhoods even wants to try ... ."
Other featured homes include the Liquori residence in Glen Cove, N.Y., which has more than 500 figurines in its front yard; the Rice home in Troy, Ill., that boasts a handcrafted Ferris wheel and merry-go-round; and a dazzling display in Murrieta, Calif., where Michael Glover has covered every inch of his home in lights and set them to music.
"They all really love to make people happy and have the kids point and smile," Gray said. "They believe in Santa Claus 100 percent, and they just get a real big kick out of it."
