THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412160198
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Douglas Barnes might well be called the Father, or should we say, Grandfather Christmas of Blue Marlin Circle.
Although the folks on his circle in Kings Forest all get into the spirit of Christmas, nobody is as filled with the ho-ho-ho mood as favorite neighbor Barnes. He adds a magical new holiday display to his yard each year to please his grandchildren and as a result all the neighborhood children, too.
Every holiday Blue Marlin Circle residents fill almost 600 bags with sand and candles to make luminaries to brighten the whole circumference of their road on both Christmas Eve and Christmas night. But nothing matches Barnes' way of illuminating and decorating his home at the head of the circle.
Twinkling white lights, 6,000 of them, all wrapped in green garlands, outline the house, but that is just the beginning. The real magic is in the wooden scenes on the lawn.
Displays range from Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, Pinocchio and other characters skating across a simulated pond to this year's addition, a very special electrified carousel on which his grandchildren and his neighbors' children can take a fairy-tale spin.
``People come from all over to see what I've done,'' Barnes said.
Barnes only began his decorating eight years ago. He describes it as a ``late hobby'' inspired by the arrival of his three grandchildren, the oldest of whom is 8.
``Each year I make something and add it for the grandchildren,'' he said.
One-of-a-kind creations, the displays are not cut from patterns but come straight from Barnes' head. Retired from the building materials business, he is an accomplished woodcrafter. But in the past his efforts have been along the lines of tables, chairs and hutches, a leap to the North Pole and back from wooden Santas and snowmen.
Barnes' first effort was a Santa Claus for the roof with a ladder to the chimney. Then came scenes like the skating pond, a Nativity, Santa's Workshop house with elves out front and Mr. and Mrs. Frosty. The male and female snowmen stand by with a 10-foot green plywood ribbon that says ``Merry Christmas'' in lights.
The carousel is by far his most ambitious undertaking, however. He began working on it back in February.
``A neighbor came by,'' Barnes related, ``and he said, `Every year your decorations are beautiful, but I've had enough with the still stuff. You ought to make something that moves.' ''
So the carousel was born.
Now it's going round and round in the yard, its lights twinkling. Teddy bears ride in all the seats except when a grandchild or a neighbor's child arrives. Then, Barnes stops the carousel and the children hop on, too, and ride around with the bears.
``Each year, when I get everything up,'' Barnes said, ``I stand back and look at it and say, `What am I gonna do next year?' ''
So he already knows what 1995 will bring. The grandchildren and neighbors can look for an electrified wooden train running around a track complete with a Christmas village nearby.
Only Santa knows what Grandfather Christmas of Kings Forest will dream up after that.
P.S. WHAT HAPPENED, Ed Goldberg wonders, to the flock of about 20 to 30 mallards with one lone white duck among them that had been hanging around the point in Chesopeian Colony? He hasn't seen the ducks all fall.
THE MOON IS FULL tonight, lighting the way for winter to arrive on Wednesday. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
Zachary Barnes, 4, a grandson, and Kyle Wheelock, 3, a neighbor,
check out Douglas Barnes' handiwork at his home on Blue Marlin
Circle in Kings Forest. Barnes, who describes his decorating as a
``late hobby,'' makes his creations by hand from his head. by CNB