It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Most people are usually sleeping in, but 79-year-old Don Kehl has two ladders out and is directing his two sons, three grandkids and granddaughter-in-law on how to string up an elaborate Christmas light design.
“None of my family will let me on the roof anymore,” Kehl said, with a smile. “I'm just kind of down here telling them what they did wrong.”
His decor, he said with a bellowing laugh, is “whatever was on sale at Home Depot on the 26th of December last year.”
Kehl lives on East Acacia Avenue in El Segundo, dubbed “Candy Cane Lane” every holiday season. The neighborhood has its own Yelp page and has been decorating as a group for the holidays since 1949. Starting Dec. 9, thousands of visitors will descend to enjoy the holiday light displays. This year, the neighborhood is expecting a bigger crowd, after the street inspired the upcoming holiday film Candy Cane Lane starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross.
The film will be released on Amazon Prime Video on Dec. 1. You can watch the trailer here.
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Kehl thinks the film will bring more visitors, “but that's fine,” he said. “The reason we put these up is to attract people so the more people, the better.”
For the Kehl family, decorating each year is a treasured family tradition that now stretches to three generations. Don Kehl’s two sons, Tom and Russell Kehl, remember when their kids — now in their 20s — were young and would watch them put up lights with their dad.
“It's been fun to watch the kids go from, ‘Can I please go on the roof, can I please go on the roof, can I please go on the roof’ to running the show now,” Russell Kehl said.
Scott Brunnenkant, who has lived on the street for 34 years, was also busy putting up decorations Friday.
“The movie looks like a lot of fun,” he said, adding that the film’s screenwriter Kelly Younger used to live up the street. “He's a friend of ours, nice guy.”
In addition to lights around the roof line, Brunnenkant’s decorations also include LED icicles, window garlands with lit-up wreaths and ornaments, fairy lights on the bushes, four electric trains on one side of the yard and teddy bears and elves on the other side.
He knew about the neighborhood’s tradition when he bought the house back in 1989 as the open house was held during Christmastime. Friends ask him all the time if holiday decorations are allowed as part of the HOA, he said.
“And I tell them, oh yeah, it's the Santa clause,” he chuckles. Technically there’s no requirement to participate, but neighbors joke that peer pressure gets just about everyone involved.
A community effort to pay the bills
Brunnenkant said his home’s electricity bill triples during the month of December and because the neighborhood decorates the cul-de-sac at the end of the road, that part of the neighborhood has its own address under Southern California Edison.
“There's a bill that comes with that,” he said, explaining that the neighborhood sets up a Santa tent at the end of the block that takes donations. “Some of that money is used to pay the electric bill for the end of the block and get the Santa suit cleaned and things like that.”
The rest of the money is donated to different causes like St. Jude’s Hospital, said Jennifer Turnbull, another neighbor who has co-chaired the Candy Cane Lane committee for around 15 years.
“It's a labor of love, worth every penny, worth every minute,” Turnbull said. “It's a lot but it brings joy to a lot of people.”
The neighborhood typically gets about 8,000 visitors on opening night and 3,000 to 4,000 a night through Dec. 25 — the last day of the light show, Turnbull said.
With the movie release, Turnbull said, they are ready for additional visitors. To help things run smoothly, she asks that people use waste bins for trash.
What to expect on opening night
On opening night, Turnball said, people line up behind police barricades at the beginning of the block on California Street. Santa Claus arrives on a fire truck and “Candy Cane Lane” is pitch black.
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Candy Cane Lane is open to the public on Dec. 9 till Christmas Day from dusk to 9:30 p.m. every night.
- Where: East Acacia Avenue and California Street, El Segundo
- Santa Claus will be at his sleigh every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 7 to 9 p.m.
- Visiting is free. Donations are welcome at Santa’s sleigh at the end of the street.
“He will wave his hand at each street, or each home, screaming Merry Christmas or ho ho ho, and those lights turn on and it's oohs and ahhs all the way ‘till he gets to the cul de sac where his sleigh is,” she said.
Turnbull’s home is one of the houses decorated with thousands of lights, she said, and Looney Tunes characters, all custom and made by hand.
Storage issues
Richard and Judy Doukakis, who have lived on “Candy Cane Lane” since 1986, begin decorating their home for Christmas after Halloween ends. They don’t decorate for Halloween because they just don’t have room for decorations, Richard Doukakis said.
“There's probably 75 boxes,” Richard Doukakis said — of their Christmas decor — stored in multiple closets, the attic and the garage.
“I bought him a storage shed last year for Christmas, so that's helped,” Judy Doukakis said. “But storage is a problem.”
New this year: Custom made Bluey characters
That did not stop them from ordering custom made Bluey characters decked out in holiday fare for this year’s holiday decorations.
“I thought it'd be nice. It's so popular. My grandkids love it. So I had somebody make me those characters so they're going to be on my lawn now,” Richard Doukakis said.
Bill and Debra Mitchell also custom make their decor. Their blue front door is flanked by two candy canes on either side. After spotting them in a mail order catalog, the couple decided they could make them cheaper, so they did.
Over the years, they have also made penguins and flamingos which will come out in the next few days leading up to opening day.
Back when the pair moved into the neighborhood in 1995, they didn’t know about the tradition.
“Right before it happened. I met a friend down the street and she said, ‘What are you doing for ‘Candy Cane Lane?’ And I said, ‘We know nothing about it,’” Debra Mitchell said. “And then he pops up with, ‘Oh, that explains the big manger animals, farm animals, that were in the garage when we looked at the house.’”
And they have been decorating it ever since.
