One of my favorite holiday traditions from my childhood was going to see the Christmas decorations at the Pflaumers' house in Drexel Hill, PA, known in my family as the "Christmas House." Every year, either my parents, my godmother, or my grandparents would take me over to the large Tudor-style home on Fairfax Road, where I'd stand, mesmerized, admiring the incredible variety of Christmas decorations on and around the property. The Pflaumers owned the Schmidt Brewing Company in Philadelphia, a beer distributorship that was fairly well-known in the area. Mr. Pflaumer wound up in the slammer for tax evasion and eventually had to declare bankruptcy in the 1980s, but that didn't stop him (or his family) from wowing the local residents every year with their Christmas display.

You could actually hear the Christmas House before you saw it, thanks to the holiday music that blared on an endless loop over a loudspeaker system. Often we had to park our car two or three blocks away from the house; there was always a crowd gathered around it, from Thanksgiving all the way up until New Year's, and understandably so: there were so many fantastic sights on the property that one's eyes could hardly rest. Here was a life-sized illuminated Santa's sleigh, complete with eight reindeer, suspended from a pulley system that wound around the side yard of the house. On the front lawn was an enormous Nativity scene, with real straw and a real stable and nearly life-sized figures gathered around the manger. Not to mention all kinds of flashing lights and holiday statuary scattered everywhere. From the peak of the roof, a huge lit-up Santa statue appeared on the verge of climbing into the chimney.

If I had to guess, I'd say that there were easily 50,000 lights in the display, but that may be a conservative estimate. I remember the adults standing around and speculating what the Pflaumers' electric bill must be. There was a hurricane fence erected around the property, and I was always curious if anyone actually lived in the house during the holiday season. I never saw any cars, interior lights, or other signs of life within the house when we went to look at it. Now, as an adult looking back on it, I wonder how the Pflaumers' neighbors tolerated this show year in and year out. As much as I loved going to see it, I can't imagine living next door to it!

I can't remember exactly when I stopped going to see the Christmas House; I suppose it was sometime around the advent of my teenage years, when I thought myself too "cool" to be transported by the extravagance and magic of the display. You know what teenagers are like--nothing impresses them. But now that December is upon us, I've found my thoughts turning back to the Christmas House, wondering if the Pflaumers still put on the display.

Labels: childhood, holidays, memories, nostalgia, Upper Darby