Press Coverage

Christmas Countdown

By STAFF WRITERS
Fresno Bee
December 23, 2004

Two days until Christmas and the numbers start running through your head.

Just exactly how many shopping hours — or minutes — are left?

How many extra digits will be on the Visa bill next month?

Do you have exact change for that large peppermint latte?

To confuse things more, here are some other numbers to think about this holiday season.

Lighting up

In town, decorations light up several neighborhoods.

Almost all of the 121 homes along a mile-long stretch of Huntington Boulevard are decorated for the 20th annual Candlelight Christmas, according to Grant and Ann Schreiber, who have lived on the boulevard since 1975.

The street is open to the public from 6 to 10 p.m. through Christmas Day.

This year, 20,000 walkers trekked down Christmas Tree Lane, the two-mile stretch of Van Ness Boulevard. Featured in the lane displays: 29 penguins, three Mickey Mouses, one Minnie Mouse, one Pluto and one Winnie the Pooh. There are also more than 500,000 lights, according to lane coordinator Dean Alexander.

But keeping those lights twinkling isn't cheap.

To light the deodar trees along with lane costs $8,000, alone. Individual homes foot their own bills for their displays.