CARLSBAD, Calif. — So, you say you like to decorate for the holidays? In this Zevely Zone, I went to Carlsbad to lay eyes on a Christmas creation you must see to believe. If you think the Ofcacek family likes to decorate for the holidays inside their house, wait until you see their garage.
"It's going very good," said Dennis Ofcacek. "It takes one month to set this up."
With a flip of several dozen switches, Santa's Christmas Village comes to life.
"This first area down here is called Santa Claus Land and then we have the suburbs right in here," said Dennis.
Like many towns across America, Dennis says his town started small but then started to sprawl.
"Then we are moving down here to the carnival. There is a ticket booth right here in the front, ha, ha, ha," laughed Dennis.
His town has hundreds of tiny buildings and figurines. At Santa's Christmas Village, parents can sneak off to the downtown district for shopping and sweet treats. "Look here. Kripsy Kreme! We have to have a Kripsy Kreme in town," said Dennis.
Back in 1986, when this all started if you ate too much, you had to walk home, but these days you can catch the train which will take you right by a working water fountain and Elvis's house.
"All aboard the toy maker's Santa Express, next stop Christmas," shouts the conductor. "This is a great Zevely Zone story," said neighbor Steve Toth who told us about Dennis' special spot. "It's unbelievable the amount of work he puts into this," said Steve who told us Santa's Village is purely a spectator sport.
Steve will not be volunteering to put the village away. "No, I don't think so I'll leave that for Dennis," laughed Steve.
Nobody is packing anything up until you visit Clark Griwold.
"This is his home where the lights won't stay on and then if you look down here this is Uncle Eddie and his RV he is there in his bathrobe and he is pumping his sewage out," said Dennis.
Next stop? Special homage to A Christmas Story. "I don't know if you can see it or not but in front of the school the little boy has his tongue stuck to the flagpole," said Dennis.
I triple dog dare you to guess what happens next? "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas," sang Dennis as he sprinkled fake snow all over the village. A 'Dennis dusting' added the final touch to a winter wonderland. "This is a labor of love and like people to see this," said Dennis. "May all of your Christmases be white."
Dennis starts setting up Santa's Christmas Village on November first and leaves it up until the second week of January.
Watch another Zevely Zone: San Diego father receives $1,500 holiday surprise (Dec 16, 2021)