Lighting Up The holidays
By Jack Buehrer

Queens residents go all out for the holiday season.

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or any other religious holiday in December, for many people, it’s not about presents, family or tradition: it’s all about the decorations.

You can see it in all sorts of ways ranging from Christmas light displays to Menorah candles, but everyone has their own way of leaving their mark on the holidays.

In such an ethnically-diverse region of the city, it’s not too hard to find decorations to fit anyone’s lifestyle or religious beliefs. A simple trip to the local grocery or department store could even net you a few strands of lights, some candles, a wreath, or even a couple spare light bulbs.

Basically, as the holidays become increasingly more commercial, holiday decorations, lights and supplies can be found just about anywhere. But as many holiday home-decorating “experts” will tell you, be careful not to overspend. Which, oddly enough, means do your shopping late rather than early. In fact, the cheapest decorations are bought after the holidays with next year in mind.

“You’ve got to be careful with what you buy,” one decorating enthusiast said. “If you wait until after the holidays to buy your stuff, that’s when it goes on sale. That wreath that costs you $21 on Dec. 15 will cost you half that on Dec. 26.”

Mike Giglio Is Back

Less than a month after striking his massive Halloween-lights display, an annual tradition for the 44-year-old Richmond Hill resident, he’s once again wandering through his front yard trying to figure out how to turn on his even-bigger collection of Christmas decorations.

“You gotta see what I’ve gotta go through to turn this stuff on and to shut it down,” he says, checking a strand of the more than 40,000 lights he has strewn across the yard. “It’s unbelievable. I’m even amazed myself.”

Since 1990, Giglio has been going all out for his holiday display, and more recently, has expanded his empire to include Halloween. But Christmas is, and always has been, his first love.

Every year, from Dec. 3 until Jan. 7 (“Tradition,” he says. “Putting your lights on before then is bad luck.”), Giglio’s home is like something out of an F.A.O Schwartz window display: beneath the glow of the thousands of colored C-7 light bulbs are hundreds of figurines and hand-crafted wood cutouts of everything from Mickey Mouse and Marvin the Martian to the traditional Christmas nativity scene (“The most important part of all of this,” he says.) And inside the five-paned windows of the front porch of the house are more than 100 animated dolls, each depicting a different scene in each windowpane.

“You’re looking at some power here, man,” Giglio says proudly. “I’ve got enough power here to run the Rockefeller [Center] Christmas tree!”

For Giglio, his passion for holiday decorating dates all the way back to his childhood on Long Island. Growing up, once December rolled around, he says he would start begging his father to start decorating the house.

“I don’t know where it came from,” he says. “When I was small I used to bug my father to go up on the ladder to decorate the house. As years went by, nothing really changed, I always wanted to decorate. I used to tell my kids that when Santa flies over New York, he sees the brightest thing in the sky. I’d tell them, ‘he’s not going to miss me.’”

But Giglio will be the first to tell you that making his house stand out from Santa’s sleigh is no easy — or cheap — task. He and his neighbor Luis Pellop begin constructing the display each year during the first week of November and Giglio spends about $300-500 each year adding to his décor. His whole collection, he estimates, has cost him about $9,000 over the years.
And the electric bill? Forget about it.

“My average electric bill for a regular month is about $65,” he said. “During the holidays, I pay about three-hundred and some change for that month. “But it’s worth every penny. Honestly. It really is.”

And why is it worth it?

“Because I try to bring Christmas to everyone,” he said. “Christmas isn’t Christmas anymore. Christmas is money. There’s no more tradition anymore. You never used to see Christmas stuff out before Thanksgiving like you do now and all of a sudden it’s everywhere. I’ve got my lights up because I have to start early. But you go inside, and our house is decorated for Thanksgiving. I give this to the people when it’s time.”

Box: The Master of the Lights

As always, Mike Giglio invites the community to his Richmond Hills home throughout the Christmas season to enjoy his annual holiday lights display. The lights, as well as festive holiday music will begin after dark from Dec. 3 through Jan. 7.

This year, he is selling tickets for a raffle that will be held at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 22. First prize is a hand-woven basket filled with five bottles of wine, a gift of about $70 in value.

Additional bottles of wine will be available for second and third place, as well. All proceeds will go toward an as-yet-undecided children’s charity.

Mike Giglio’s home is located at 100-21 90th Avenue in Richmond Hill.