BRIGHT NIGHT LIGHTS Radiant beams from ... front lawns below

By KATIE SEMINARA

Holiday lawn decorators strive for bigger, better

These holiday lawn displays are so grand in size, you just might quake at the sight.

Red-and-white striped candy canes with green bows line the drive that leads to a miniature North Pole in the Carosella front yard on Afton Avenue in Boardman.

Outside the house adorned with flashing snowflakes sits a sleigh pulled by reindeer, all hand-crafted by Dave Carosella.

Dave, 63, and his wife, Karyn, 58, said they decorate for every season, but their Christmas display is the main event.

“We just go from one holiday to another,” said Karyn, who noted the summer months are the only months without festive decor.

The newest addition to their Christmas presentation is an 8-foot blow-up nutcracker that is surrounded by snowmen and lit trees.

“When we saw it on sale, I said, ‘We have to get this because it’s a nutcracker,’ said Karyn.

The significance of the nutcracker stems from Karyn’s seeing “The Nutcracker” ballet with her mother. After her mother died, Karyn’s nutcracker collection began, and she now has 100 various-sized nutcrackers inside the house. The blow-up was a needed addition, she said.

In Lowellville, those searching for lights will find another collection with about 100 pieces in the front lawn of the Porrazzo home on Read Street.

Not 100 nutcrackers, but about 80 blow-ups with an additional 20 Christmas yard decorations.

“I come out every day for about two hours to get everything set up,” said Anthony Porrazzo, 14, who noted it took about 11 people to prep the house for the holiday season — including his 12-year-old sister, Katrina; mom, Paula; and dad, Tony.

The yard is like a blow-up village where the abominable snowman walks the streets, Santa zooms down the road in a convertible and the Simpsons characters are there to wish you a happy holiday.

Kim Chiclowe, 39, of Lowellville, brings her 9-year-old son Jon to “Porrazzo Land” each year around Christmastime.

“He always likes to come here,” she said while driving past on Tuesday night. “They put on a nice display. They really go all out.”

The Porrazzos took their decorating one step beyond and created a Web site to show their displays from 2003 to the present. The site is www.porrazzoland.com.

Though Michael Wolfgang, 9, of Girard doesn’t have a mass amount of blow-ups in his front yard, he is still proud that he decorated his house on Woodland Trails by himself.

“I do it so everybody can see them,” Michael said of his decorating motivation.

Five of Michael’s six blow-ups tower over his head, but each day Michael checks the wind and rearranges his yard ornaments to make sure they are just right for passers-by.

“He mapped out exactly where he wanted everything,” said Michael’s mother, Maryfran Wolfgang. “I enjoy watching him, because he gets so excited.”

The blow-up theme can also be found on Canfield Road at the home of Charlie and Candice McGrath of Canfield.

The blow-up collection started seven years ago, and each year a new one is added, said Charlie, 42.

“If they’re on clearance they are coming here,” said his daughter, Heather Bowers, of new blow-ups for her parents’ Christmas display.

But the blow-ups are only a portion of the McGrath holiday presentation. The house is decked in white, red and multicolored lights that blink to the beat of seasonal tunes such as “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”

“I actually had people stop in the middle of [state Route] 62 to look at the lights,” said Charlie.

The McGraths’ neighbors even asked to have the music turned up for a holiday party, said Bowers.

“I love the lights, especially when it’s snowing,” she said. “It just doesn’t feel like Christmas till you have lights.”

Her dad plans to keep the lights burning bright for years to come. “I’ll keep adding to it every year,” he said, noting that he puts the decorations up for his grandsons, Charles and Logan.

Jim McKee, 71, of Austintown, decorates his Burkey Road home for his grandchildren as well. “We try to have everything done by Thanksgiving night so the grandkids can turn the lights on,” McKee said.

The house is emblazoned with a six-horse carousel, held up by posts wrapped in red and white garland, about $120 worth, said McKee.

“You wouldn’t believe the work, because he built it himself,” said Delores McKee, 69, of her husband’s constructing the carousel and also an igloo paired with three polar bears for Christmas.

The displayed carousel is the second one McKee built. His first one was built 11 years ago with reindeer, which is now part of his brother-in-law’s Christmas decor.

“I just had a thought of doing something different,” he said of the reason for creating the carousel.

Though the carousel takes two days to put up, McKee said he has a great time every year.

“There was a little girl coming home from school and she said, ‘Your house is always so pretty,’” said McKee.

“As long as the kids enjoy the decorations, it makes it worth it.”