Holiday images figure to collide at the next meeting of the Monte Sereno City Council when Clark Griswold meets the Grinch—and the council may have to render the most controversial decision since Judge Henry Harper was forced to rule whether Kris Kringle was indeed the one and only Santa Claus.
At issue at the Nov. 19 council meeting is whether or not resident Alan Aerts (a.k.a. Clark Griswold) should be allowed to proceed with his plans for an elaborate display of holiday lights and decorations at his Monte Sereno home, or whether council members should side with the Danielle Place residents (a.k.a. the Grinches) who say that Aerts' holidays displays have gone over the top.
And it will be up to Mayor Jack Lucas (a.k.a. Judge Harper) and the rest of the council to determine who will have a merry Christmas.
A governmental body hasn't been required to make such a monumental holiday decision since Judge Harper was faced with his controversial ruling in the classic Christmas tale Miracle on 34th Street !
Aerts is most certainly a living tribute to the Clark Griswold character portrayed by Chevy Chase in the holiday film Christmas Vacation . Clark wanted to make it the "best Christmas ever" for his family, so he decorated his home with life-size figurines and thousands of tiny lights—much to the dismay of what he calls his Grinch-like neighbors.
The Danielle Place neighbors, on the other hand, say they are not opposed to holiday displays—just Aerts' holiday display. For that, Aerts calls them Grinches.
Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot ... but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did NOT!
We're not sure whether the concerned neighbors live just north or just south of the Aerts home, but they're certainly not happy about his plans for life-size figurines, 75,000 lights and amplified sound.
Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming, "I MUST find some way to stop Christmas from coming!"
The only way residents can keep Christmas—at least, an Alan Aerts Christmas—from coming to Monte Sereno is for the city council to regulate such displays. It will be just that kind of a regulation that council members could consider next week.
Making rulings to determine how residents celebrate the holidays? It hardly seems worthy of the council's time. But that's not exactly the issue that the council members will examine. The city isn't out to ban holiday displays, just to regulate use of outdoor lights and sound.
Would such regulations impact Aerts' planned Christmas decorations? Most likely. But it seems that if there would have been some sort of compromise among the residents, it would have never come to this.
So it could be lights out for Alan Aerts when the Monte Sereno council meets on Nov. 19.
And if the neighbors get an unfavorable ruling from the council, they really have only one hope left—a burned out bulb ... one goes out, they all go out!
