Ho, ho, ho … holy that’s a lot of lights!
People could be forgiven for having such a stunned reaction when they stumble upon the Ribalkin/Viau family home around the holidays.
For more than seven years, their house at 4967 Chalet Place at the top of Skyline Drive in North Vancouver has been a sight to behold – a crowning testament to holiday spirit, generosity, hard work, and the marvels of what household electricity and a good circuit box can pull off.
Simply put, every year the house turns into a destination location for people looking to find a little holiday joy for themselves and their families as they take in the sights and sounds of row after row and thousands upon thousands of lights, intricate figurines, decorations, and, of course, that giant tree out front adorned with strands of glowing light.
But what’s the place like before the holidays have really kicked into high gear?
The answer: although the house’s Christmas lights aren’t exactly up and running in all their shiny glory just yet, the family has been busy as elves for weeks.
“My folks actually start in late September,” explains Ethan Ribalkin, the adult son of homeowners John Ribalkin and Aurore Viau. “The first step, the first month and a half is when my parents are just unboxing stuff and putting it together. The outdoor stuff is when the rest of us get involved and that’s basically every weekend, typically from late October and all of November.”
Last Sunday, Ethan Ribalkin and his brother-in-law Aaron Senetza could be seen on top of a 65-foot crane as they carefully placed more than 1,000 feet of lights and a perfectly placed star atop the large spruce tree outside the family home.
“The big tree in the front of the house alone took about three hours, just for one tree. That tree has, I believe, 1,400 feet of lights,” Ribalkin says.
While decorating for the holidays can conjure images of sullied boxes of Christmas lights stored in some airless area of one’s home, Ribalkin suggests that at his parents’ place Christmas lights are stored everywhere and anywhere.
Considering that every year the family generally puts up tens of thousands of Christmas lights and decorations, their propensity for storing lights seems reasonable.
“With us, it’s kind of every nook and cranny of the house is used to store lights. That includes all the crawl spaces, overheard racks in the garage – anywhere you can think of everything’s boxed up and put away.”
He goes on: “The next four weekends will be jam packed – you know, eight- to 14-hour days, as much as we can. Whenever there’s sunlight we’re working, or in the rain actually – it doesn’t matter.”
It all started in 2010.
For years, Ribalkin explains, his father John was interested in making their annual Christmas display bigger and better. During the 2010 holiday season, Ribalkin observed a steady influx of people – even more than usual – driving by the house to observe the lights. He realized that after years of Christmas displays their home had been targeted as a holiday display to see.
“I said, ‘Perhaps we should put a donation bin out front and see if people will give money and we’ll give it to a local charity,’” he says. “All of a sudden the display went from pretty good to what you see today.”
During the course of the holiday season, donation bins, one for groceries and one for cash donations, are left outside the residence. The good-tidings continue to flow to this day.
From 2010 to 2016, the total raised by the family over the holiday season has been more than $65,000 with 769 full grocery bags also collected, Ribalkin says.
Last year alone, more than 180 bags of groceries and $18,000 was raised for the Harvest Project and Shriners Care for Kids.
This year the family is also planning to donate some proceeds to the B.C. Epilepsy Society.
“That one’s quite personal for us,” Ribalkin says. “My sister Philana is epileptic and she almost died as a toddler. The epilepsy charity is one of the reasons she’s alive today.”
Setting up and decorating their house in such an extravagant manner every year is no easy task. Ribalkin explains that their enemy when setting up is the weather. Last year, he says, they experienced torrential rain every single weekend and there’s always the risk that the family home will be dumped on with snow, elongating the process even further.
Why do they continue to do it?
Besides the fact that it’s become a family tradition and they’re able to raise thousands of dollars for good causes, they simply like seeing people in the community’s faces light up (literally) with joy.
“What I enjoy is when people come by the lights and they hand me their cell phone and they say, ‘Would you mind taking a photo of us?’ And I say, ‘No problem.’ And they tell me, ‘We’ve done this same photo here five years in a row and this is our family photo.’ It makes us feel more part of the community,” Ribalkin says.
He adds, however, that this could be the last year the family embarks on such a massive, festive Christmas light extravaganza.
He says the event has been getting so big year after year that it’s simply draining, time-consuming and challenging to keep going with it.
“When you’re investing a quarter of the year into Christmas lights with your spare time and your weekends sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming,” he says.
Opening night is slated for Dec. 2 at 6:30 p.m. After that date, the lights will be on display from 5:30 to 11 p.m. daily until Jan. 6. For more information, visit the event's Facebook page or official website.
Ribalkin adds that while this might be its last season, he wouldn’t be surprised if it somehow continued.
“I’m hopeful that when the family sees all the little kids cheering and celebrating on the driveway that it usually keeps us motivated to continue on for another season.”
