THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140132
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
LENGTH: Long : 172 lines
DORETHER WIGGINS IS fussy about her lights.
She wants them to look just right, and to see that they do, she supervises while her son, John Ricks, puts them up for her.
There are lights around the door, porch and top of the house. And all of them blink off and on.
``You've got to get them up there right,'' said Wiggins, who lives on Matthews Court in Suffolk with her 15-year-old grandson.
Ricks, a nurse at Autumn Care of Suffolk, comes over each year to string the lights. The job usually takes about a day and a half, Wiggins said.
They put Santa Claus and the reindeer on top of the house, candles by the steps and Christmas trees on the bedroom windows.
``I've been decorating my house ever since I can remember,'' Wiggins said, ``ever since I was a grown lady.''
For years, her late husband put the lights up, when they lived in the Boston area of Suffolk, off Pitchkettle Road. Now, her neighbors in the Lake Kennedy section of her hometown appreciate her lights.
``Everybody comes by and looks at it when I get it up,'' she said.
For Wiggins, getting the lights up signals the beginning of the Christmas season. She will continue to put them up as long as she can, she said.
``I just likes all that pretty stuff for Christmas,'' she said.
- Susie Stoughton
WHEN WILL KITCHEN turns on the lights at his Ivor home, Christmas joy radiates from the Colonial home.
About 125,000 - that's right, 125,000 - blinking, twinkling lights glimmer at Kitchen's yard and house. Little wonder area residents call it The Christmas House.
More than 25 live Christmas trees are lit from top to bottom. Fences and bushes also sparkle with lights for the holiday season, and windows are decorated with wreaths.
And yes, Santa and his reindeer have arrived. They can be seen landing on Kitchen's roof.
Each year, Kitchen adds something new to the festive scene he's been creating for 39 years. This year's addition will be a stage coach with horses - one of the many large decorations on the front lawn. There is also a 20-foot tier fountain that lights and gives the illusion of a waterfall.
More important, said Kitchen, is the life-size Nativity scene under a tree on the lawn.
``A lot of people don't know the true meaning of Christmas,'' the Ivor businessman said. ``The true meaning is Jesus Christ. He was the first gift to us from God.''
There are about 10,000 more lights and 150 decorations inside the house.
Kitchen said his house has become such a lure that last year four Greyhound buses pulled up to the house.
``I've seen it where my whole driveway was mobbed with people, the sidewalk in front of the house was blocked with people on stepladders taking pictures,'' he said. ``The highway has even been blocked with cars.''
Kitchen's extravagant gift to the community began with 100 lights, right after his son was born in 1956.
Kitchen began working on this year's display in October.
``Each year, people tell me that I'll never be able to outdo last year,'' he said, ``but I always find something new and different.''
The display costs about $1,000 a month to light.
- Jody Snider
TOMMY AND DEBBIE WILSON have a very special reason for lighting up their Suffolk house and yard ``like a Christmas tree'' during the holidays.
It's so Santa won't miss their house on Christmas Eve! At least, that's what the Wilsons told their three children several years ago. And it's become a family tradition.
To guide St. Nick on Christmas Eve, the lights on the Wilsons' roof and in the house and yard burn all night long. On other evenings - usually from Thanksgiving weekend until after the holidays - their house is lighted from dusk until bedtime.
``When Tommy Wilson turns on the electricity, the neighbors say, `Wow!' '' said Mollie Fowler, who lives in the same neighborhood, Oak Ridge. ``There are lights on top of the house, in the yard, and everywhere else . . . on the trees in the yard. The house lights up the whole neighborhood, and the tree inside the house looks like something out of the White House.''
``We always buy a big Christmas tree at a tree farm,'' Debbie Wilson said. ``We use all types of ornaments . . . those with pictures of the kids on them, some they made in school, and certain favorite ones that each one has to hang.''
Natives of New Jersey, the Wilsons moved to Suffolk 17 years ago after a visit with relatives at Christmastime.
When they found a house in Suffolk with a ``W'' on the front door and five hooks on the fireplace for hanging Christmas stockings, they knew the Oak Ridge home was meant for them.
The weekend after Thanksgiving, all five Wilsons unpacked boxes of lights, which are organized and marked for each particular bush and tree, and spent about three hours stringing them. Even 9-year-old Melissa is allowed to climb up on the roof now and help her older brothers, Tommy and Paul.
In addition to the Wilsons' ``grand illumination,'' there are two toy soldiers standing guard at the front steps, a plastic Santa holding a list with names of family members, and a big star attached to the chimney.
- Shirley Brinkley
DAVID JOYNER USES a timer to make sure his Christmas display delights passersby even if he doesn't get home until after dusk.
Five years ago, he moved to Southampton County from Virginia Beach, and word of his Christmas lights spread quickly. People come from near and far to Joyner's Bridge Road address outside Franklin to see his Nativity scene and the reindeer that seem to be flying across the night sky.
Joyner invested in the timer a couple of years ago, after he arrived home a little later than usual one day and found a woman who was disappointed to miss his lights.
``She had driven from Ivor to see the lights, and they weren't on,'' he said. ``She went to the door and asked Joyce to turn them on, but she didn't know how because I had so many different plugs.''
Joyner, supervisor of the Franklin city garage, has nearly life-size figures in his Nativity scene.
Lights outline the house and drape the trees. There are snowmen and singing choir members in the yard, and the reindeer - including Rudolph - are suspended from a wire strung between the house and garage.
Joyner pipes Christmas carols to the yard for spectators to hear as they drive by. He enjoys providing the entertainment. ``I do it because I don't have any children at home anymore, and this is my way of having Christmas,'' he said.
Joyner also plays Santa Claus during the holidays.
``Santa Claus can't live in a house that looks like the Grinch,'' he said.
- Susie Stoughton
CALL IT Christmas logic.
You attend Magnolia United Methodist Church, you decorate your yard with magnolias.
Such seasonal decorations have made winners of P.B. and Janet Piland Jr. of Garden Lane, off Wilroy Road in Suffolk.
In 1991, 1993 and 1994, they received first prize for their yard art in a neighborhood competition sponsored by the Nansemond Gardens-Willowbrook Beautification Committee.
``This season, we have magnolias - lots of 'em,'' Janet said. Well - close. ``They're made of silk.''
And, there is an upside-down rose trellis created by P.B., who works at Newport News Shipbuilding.
``My husband had this trellis,'' Janet said. ``I told him it looked like a Christmas tree if you turned it upside-down.''
The Pilands are happy with their display, but they are not sitting on their magnolia laurels. ``We always prepare two or three years ahead,'' Janet said. ``Next year, sleds and musical instruments.''
``A lot of people ask about our ideas,'' Janet said. ``We ought to patent them.''
She said, ``A lot of people drive here to see the display at Wilroy Baptist Church, and they get to look at ours, too.''
- Frank Roberts ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo on cover by John H. Sheally II
Will Kitchen decorates his windows with wreaths. Before he's
finished, he'll have about 125,000 lights twinkling at his Ivor
home.
Staff photos by JOHN SHEALLY II
Will Kitchen assembles the reindeer that will go on the roof of his
Ivor home.
Dorether Wiggins adjusts the lights on the front rail of her home in
the Lake Kennedy area of Suffolk.
Above: David Joyner, as Santa, decorates his home near Franklin.
Right: Janet Piland adorns her Nansemond Gardens home with
magnolias.
Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Thomas and Debbie Wilson pose with their children, Paul and Melissa,
outside their gaily decorated home in Oak Ridge. Everybody pitches
in on decorating day, so that stringing the outdoor lights takes
just three hours.
by CNB