If This Santa Cruz Woman Had Her Way, She'd Celebrate Christmas Year Round

To say Eugenia Wood loves Christmas is a bit of an understatement. For the holiday, her house along the levee at the San Lorezo River is lit up brighter than the Boardwalk.

"My mother lives for Christmas," corrects her daughter, Elizabeth, 37. "She starts preparing for it December 26."

That means this Greek grandmother hits the sales on lights the day after the holiday and starts buying for next year. She puts away money for next year's electric bill, which hovers around $1,800 from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

"This is what I do," she says. "I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't gamble. I put my money in this. You only have one life to live."

Her Victorian at 305 Raymond St. is just off the Third Street frontage road that rings the Boardwalk area drawing passersby who stop and take pictures every night.

"It's amazing," says a tourist from France. "No, they don't do it like this at home."

Wood, who came to California from Greece 50 years ago, says she has already filled every available space on her property with lights and decorations, ranging from traditions snow men and Santas to lighted porpoises and pelicans. Her manger has crept over fenceline and onto a concrete street triangle under a no-right-turn sign.

"I would put up more if I had more space," she says.

But that's not her biggest problem.

She's complaining about the shed she built without a permit to house the lights. The letter warns of as much as a $2,500-a-day fine, plus attorneys fees,  if she doesn't bring the house up to compliance. It is signed by Paige White, the city's "code compliance specialist," who couldn't be reached while city offices are closed for the holidays.

She was supposed to have forfeited $500 to appeal the citation within 10 days of receiving the letter she got before Thanksgiving. She she said she tried to meet with the city's planning director, but her calls werern't returned.

When the city returns to business, she will try to do what she can to appeal to officials to let her keep the shed she she calls her Santa Claus hotel.

Wood, who married an American serviceman she met in Greece and worked for two decades in the Macy's makeup department in San Francisco, says that without a place to store her yards and yards of lights and wires, she won't be able to maintain what has become an annual tradition.

"Where can I put them? Maybe I have to leave them up all year long?"

She doesn't know who would file a complaint after five years about the shed, which also covers her washer and dryer.  It's not obvious from the outside of the house, which in the summertime is just as elaborately decorated with plants and flowers.

It's a bright spot in an area that was once the most blighted and drug-filled part of town, but has recently gone through major redevelopment.

It takes Wood and her cousin seven days to put up the display and another seven to take it down. It's a labor of love she's done for the past six years here, but for her whole life in one way or another.

"When I was five, they gave me a piece of green tree. I found things to put on it and make it colorful," she says. "I've just always been this way. I love everything about Christmas.''

You can vote for Woods' home here. If she wins this contest it will bring $100,000 to Santa Cruz schools and $500 for her bills.