On one side is homeowner Alan Aerts, who says his elaborate holiday displays are to serve the youth in the community and calls his neighbors "Grinches" for being opposed to the displays.

On the other are the other residents of tiny Danielle Place, who say they aren't against holiday decorations themselves but are tired of the traffic and noise generated by the display.

And then there are Monte Sereno officials, who are looking to enact stricter regulations at the Nov. 19 meeting that would affect Aerts' home.

Aerts started putting up life-size Santa Claus figurines and alien spaceships on Nov. 1, immediately after he took down his similarly elaborate Halloween display. Last year, Aerts spent more than $100,000 on the display—part of it on 50,000 to 75,000 lights and on amplified sound—promising that "you haven't seen anything yet" compared to what he had planned for this year.

Aerts wrote a letter that explained his case and passed the letter out to supporters. In the letter, Aerts said the city council was considering an ordinance "that will limit your ability to celebrate the holidays by decorating your home" and encouraged residents to call city officials if they want to "continue enjoying the traditional neighborhood holiday spirit and the happy memories [your child] will remember and cherish for a lifetime."

Aerts went on to say that the issue was a result of "one neighbor's complaint out of the thousands that have enjoyed our holiday spirit and displays." He also said that he had the support of some local politicians.

According to Aerts, his Halloween display was on three to four hours each evening for three weeks, and the Christmas display is planned to be on four to five hours for four weeks.

"Let's show the council that while one or two neighbors may be 'Grinches,' the majority of the community really does support and enjoy family-oriented holiday displays," Aerts wrote.

No one is disputing that the community supports holiday displays, or that Aerts' display brings delight to much of the public.

"A thousand people can enjoy it, but that doesn't make it right," said neighbor Susan Nguyen.

That letter is actually "full of misstatements and inaccuracies," said Councilwoman Barbara Nesbet. The issue at the Nov. 19 meeting is not the consideration of a holiday decoration ordinance, she says. In fact, current city code permits "temporary lighting installed for December holidays, but only for the period of the holiday season" which Nesbet says is unconstitutional because it makes reference to religious holidays. "According to our city attorney, we're going to have to change it," Nesbet said.

What's before the council is if the city needs to amend the current lighting ordinance and "whether or not there's a need for a sound ordinance, because we don't have one," Nesbet said.

Aerts says, however, that calling it a lighting ordinance or a sound ordinance is "how they get around it. They're calling it something else."

Traffic is also an issue, since Danielle Place "is a court; it's a residential neighborhood—no one should be expected to experience that many individuals for the months of October, November, December," Nesbet said.

"We're not running it 365 days a year, 10 hours a day," Aerts countered. "It's no different than the town of Los Gatos, when they shut down Main Street for the Christmas parade. It's for the better of the city, and that's why we're doing it."

Mark Brodsky, an incoming councilman who was mentioned in the letter, said he was misidentified as supporting Aerts' cause. "That's not what I said. I think he misunderstood me," Brodsky said.

Brodsky says he told Aerts "as long as the neighbors all agree, I would not support any kind of regulation. What he heard was that I do not want regulations." Brodsky says that in this case, the neighbors disagree with Aerts.

"I could understand why you would feel the value of your property has been hurt," Brodsky said. "Three months of not having dark, calm, quiet is just too much. I believe a compromise can be reached."

While Nesbet said the issue was brought to her attention by one neighbor when she was campaigning door to door, she recognized that it is a concern of multiple nearby residents. The house "is not near an intersection; it's not near a place where you would expect a lot of traffic," Nesbet said.

"It's not just the folks in this street here," said neighbor Tom Conom. While the display definitely does impact the other three homes on the court, Conom says, the traffic goes out to Bicknell Road and surrounding streets.

Nguyen was the resident who originally brought the issue up to Nesbet. Halloween brought "hundreds and hundreds of cars" to the "little cul-de-sac with four houses," Nguyen said. Residents of Bicknell and Old Adobe Road have also complained about the traffic.

But Aerts says that he is in the fourth year of putting up the display and this was the first negative remark he had heard. "All the previous years of doing it—not one complaint," Aerts said. "Out of 50,000 people or more who view it, that's a pretty good track record." According to Aerts, he has the support of all the neighbors in the area, including the ones behind him on Bicknell and Becky Lane.

Nguyen's family moved to Danielle Place 15 years ago because of the "nice, rural, peaceful neighborhood. We feel we've been robbed of that for months at a time," Nguyen said. "It's not just a day or two here and there; it's months." When friends come over to visit during those three months, Nguyen says, they inevitably notice the noise and lighting and ask, "How can you stand it?"

Nguyen says she never formally complained to the city because she and her husband "really believe in settling it among ourselves, but when people aren't reasonable, unfortunately you have to add onto the rules."

"We've tried to be tolerant. We're not complaining type of people," Nguyen said. "I tried to deal with it last year and talk myself into it."

Nguyen says Monte Sereno's regulations are in place to protect its neighborhoods and the rural character of the city. "If he's broken the spirit of the law, then we need to have new ordinances," Nguyen said.

According to Aerts, he is unable to compromise with the length of time that his display is up. "In a few weeks it'll be gone and down anyway," Aerts said. Aerts says he has done his part by turning down his "spooky" sounds at the request of the city and posting signs that read "Enjoy the holiday spirit and please be considerate of our neighbors." That is meant to let people know not to stop in adjacent driveways or crowd up the street.

Nguyen says that has had no effect on the number of people who drive by to see the display and the amount of congestion in the court, however.

"Things should be done in moderation, and the nature of the neighborhood has changed considerably," Conom said. "When people are in moderation, there's no need for legislation. It's when someone goes overboard" that new laws are necessary, Conom says.

Aerts says his spending that much money on his display "isn't out of line" because it's proportionate to the average homeowner who spends "a couple hundred dollars on lights for his house."

In the letter, Aerts' characterization of the neighbors as anti-holiday displays is not accurate, Nguyen says. "There's a customary neighborhood display that we're used to, and there's this display. It's like a department store display, and this neighborhood isn't zoned for department stores," Nguyen said.

Aerts says, however, that Nguyen isn't speaking to the true issue. "Everyone's missing the whole idea of what we're doing it for," Aerts said. "We do it because we enjoy doing it and it needs to get done. Literally, our goal every day is, 'What can I do for the community?' "

Aerts "really wants to do stuff that would make everybody happy, and that's a commendable thing," Nesbet said. But she stipulates that Aerts must do it in a way that would allow his neighbors "to come home to a quiet cul-de-sac."

"If there have been loopholes that have been gone through, they should be plugged," Nguyen said. "I'll just do whatever I can to solve this problem."