THE BALLOON MAN

The Christmas ‘Maniac’


Julie Glassberg for The New York Times
VINTAGE DELIGHT Roy Aletti began festooning the house as a boy.
from:  nytimes.com
By COREY KILGANNON
December 14, 2012
OVER the Bronx River and through the woods, a short ride up from New York City into Westchester, one can find the local branch of the North Pole at 50 Parsons Street in the village of Harrison.
It is a house where Roy Aletti, 54, has lived his entire life, and where as a boy he helped his father string a modest display of Christmas lights.
“He wasn’t a maniac like me,” he said. “I’m an extremist.”
By his teenage years, Mr. Aletti had taken over the decorating and began turning the place into one of those seasonal landmarks known far and wide for its blinding display of figures on the lawn, porch and roof.

 

Julie Glassberg for The New York Times
Mr. Aletti's Christmas decorations.
Here at Roy’s Christmas Land, as the modest sign on the split-rail fence describes it, thousands of lights and hundreds of vintage decorations and lawn ornaments spill well into the yard next door.
Mr. Aletti said a priest once thanked him for his policy of keeping the religious-themed displays on one side and his more folksy “fantasy land” figures on the other. Each side has its own music.
read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/nyregion/roy-aletti-is-the-maniac-of-christmas-decorating.html?_r=0