Lighting up the valley

Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003 | 12:22 p.m.

Dec. 25, 2003

Few people go all out for Christmas like Las Vegas neurosurgeon Dr. Lonnie Hammargren and his wife, Sandy, both of whom were born in December.

The nativity scene in front of their house is life-size, with a real donkey and goat by the manger, a rideable train pulling such cars as a sled from entertainer Liberace's estate and, of course, many, many Christmas lights.

While his sprawling mansion near Flamingo and Sandhill roads resembles a museum every day of the year, Hammargren, who will celebrate his 66th birthday on Christmas Day, said his wife is the one who goes all out for Christmas.

Sandy Hammargren says her Christmas stuff tends to get lost amid Lonnie's other toys that he pulls out and incorporates with her Yuletide menagerie.

Both lament that so few people go all out for Christmas these days.

"People just don't know their neighbors anymore," Lonnie said. "Many years ago a neighbor would say to another, 'Ole sure did a terrific job decorating his house,' and everyone in the neighborhood would want to outdo Ole.

"But if people don't know their neighbors, they don't care and they don't try to outdo them."

Another reason, Hammargren said, is that people are afraid to do things that can get them criticized. Hammargren has been reported to Clark County officials many times by neighbors complaining about his huge contraptions, including spaceships and vintage Strip hotel neon signs jutting over his backyard wall.

"People are afraid to make a statement because other people might complain," he said. "They are afraid to be labeled as controversial. I have no problem with that."

Sandy Hammargren thinks there's a different motive.

"I think most people just don't want to take all of the stuff down after Christmas," she said. "Many people just look at it as another load of work."

Linda Smith, spokeswoman for Opportunity Village, which sponsors the 3 million-lights Magical Forest through Dec. 28, sees the point. The display, open 5 to 10 p.m. at 6300 W. Oakey Blvd., takes two months put put up and another month to take back down.

About 160,000 people a year visit the Magical Forest.

The donated lights and other fixtures have to be inventoried and put away in a manner that allows them to be easily located next Christmas, Smith said.

Helping the nonprofit dismantle the show will be inmates from Nellis' federal prison, Boy Scouts, church groups and University of Nevada, Las Vegas volunteers, she said.

Julie Yenichek, spokeswoman for Lowe's Improvement Warehouse, which has three Las Vegas stores and eight stores statewide, said convenience is the trend for those who want elaborate outside decorations.

"The biggest trend this year is the inflatable 8-foot to 12-foot Santas, reindeer, sleighs and snowmen," Yenichek said via a phone interview from Lowe's national headquarters in Moorsville, N.C. She declined to discuss sales figures, which her company does not release.

"Inflatable objects for years have been popular at commercial businesses like car lots," she said. "We are seeing them trickle down to the residential market with smaller versions of the displays for all seasons."

Yenichek said the inflatable devices, which sell for about $60 apiece, are easy to inflate and, when the season is over, they can be deflated and stored in a small area, unlike old-fashioned outdoor displays that take up large sections of garages and storage sheds.

Yenichek said mesh lights have grown in popularity because they are a net that can be tossed over a bush to display and are just as easy to take down at season's end.

But convenience is not an issue for the Hammargrens, who over the years have added to their decorations as fits their whimsy. And while they say they have won over a number of their neighbors, others are not so thrilled when they drag yet another cumbersome piece home.

Lonnie recalls the Christmas 10 years ago, when a neighbor complained to the Humane Society that Hammargren's nativity scene donkey was not wearing a blanket and was cold. It led to county officials shutting down the display because Hammargren did not have a permit to have live animals in his yard.

Hammargren said today he has a permit, but Esmeralda the donkey doesn't wear a blanket and neither does Hank the goat. Both are quite content nonetheless, Hammargren said.

Sandy recalled the time when she and Hammargren created an aerial display using cables through Styrofoam reindeer that appeared to prance along their roof.

"We got a lot more wind than we expected," she recalled, noting how Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, et al., began spinning on the cables -- their antlers and legs ripped away, heads decapitated.

Lonnie recalled: "All that was left was the torsos and maybe one or two heads hanging from the cables. It looked as though we were roasting reindeer on a barbecue."

Each year for the last 10 years the Hammargrens have hosted an open house Winter Solstice party on Dec. 21 -- the shortest day of the year.

This year several hundred attended, including Pastor Ray Christenson of the Community Lutheran Church, who donated the nativity scene to the Hammargrens as his church is building a new one as part of its expansion project.

In addition to adding to their ever-growing collection of Christmas memorabilia, the Hammargrens also keep paperwork from each Christmas, including letters from neighbors -- both positive and negative.

A copy of one complaint to the county that the Hammargrens were sent a copy of reads in part: "The nativity scene, like everything Dr. Hammargren puts (on his property), is a pile of junk. ... He should move his whole circus to the country."

Undaunted by such criticism, the Hammargrens have outdone themselves this year with their nativity scene.

The mannequins for the three wise men have the faces of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and former Vice President Al Gore. Joseph is portrayed by a mannequin with Lonnie's head. The Mary mannequin resembles Sandy.

"I think this is really cool because we don't have anything like this in our neighborhood," said visitor Melodie Coleman, 23, who took her 5-year-old son Julian to Hammargren's house to view the displays and pet Esmeralda.

Coleman, who lives in a neighborhood near Tropicana Avenue and Sandhill Road, said, "A couple of people in our neighborhood have put up lights -- not too many."

The Hammargrens admit that when they see a neat Christmas-related item that someone else has, they have to go out and find one like it for their home.

"We were at a party at Monty Miller's house and he had a life-size mechanical Santa who sang and danced to Christmas songs," Lonnie said. "Sandy had the look of a 6-year-old kid who just had to have one like it."

So now a singing and dancing mechanical Santa now stands in front of the Hammagren's large, ornately decorated Christmas tree. At the push of a button, it belts out Christmas favorites.