It’s a holiday tradition that keeps getting bigger and more elaborate every year. Victoria Park has been known for decades as the place to go to see lights and decorations. Almost all of the 300 homes in the North Naples community decorate. Neighbors and entire streets compete to see who has the best decorations.
Lindsey Manring grew up in Victoria Park and has seen the explosion of holiday spirit. She lived there as a child in 1988 and moved back with her husband and five kids in 2014.
“There have always been a lot of Christmas lights, but it wasn’t until 1992 that they really started synchronizing everything,” she said.
Martha and Rob Anderson agree.
“We moved here in 1994, and I would say even back then it was a Christmas light destination,” Martha Anderson said. “But not to the extent that it is now.”
In 2007, a college student from Victoria Park was home for the holidays and, with some buddies, created a few lighted archways over Windsor Way. That soon grew to more than a dozen arches set up over the street each holiday season. Other streets added their own themes. Candy canes sprouted on Sussex Street, followed by Christmas trees on Whitehall Street, organized by the Andersons.
“The candy canes popped up first and we were jealous. We thought, ‘We are a great street; we can do that,’” said Martha Anderson. “One of my kids said ‘How about a tree? That’s just a triangle.’ Rob built one and put it up on our mailbox. He went door-to-door and asked people to look at it, and everybody unanimously said, ‘Yes, do it.’”
The Andersons bought the supplies, and the neighbors worked assembly-line style to make lighted trees to glow from the top of every mailbox on the block. Other streets now decorate mailboxes with snowmen, snowflakes, shooting stars, angels, candles, and more.
When Dayanna and Blaise Ciabaton and their four children moved to Victoria Park in 2019 they already knew about the decorating tradition from their years of visiting during the holidays. As soon as they moved in, Dayanna started buying holiday decorations. Her favorites are the Santa and sleigh on her roof and all her inflatables. The Elf on the Shelf inflatable is her favorite, because so many children comment on how much they enjoy it. She and her family enjoy sitting by their fire pit in their driveway watching all the people enjoy the lights.
“It’s the coolest thing to give that much joy to so many people,” Ciabaton said.
Michael and Michele Standish moved to Victoria Park in 2000. They like to sit in their driveway by a fire pit and watch all the people drive by. Often traffic backs up all the way onto Airport-Pulling Road.
“During the middle of the week is better,” Michael Standish advised for avoiding crowds. “You can start on Huntington and work your way back up and down.”
Standish said the least crowded times are right after sunset and after 9:30 p.m. Most residents shut their lights off between 10 and 11 p.m. Of course there is no avoiding traffic on Christmas Eve, when almost every home has luminaries lining their lawns and driveways. There is so much traffic that it backs up all the way to Immokalee Road, and deputies have to help direct drivers.
Residents know their glowing community means lots of vehicles. It’s so popular that the Naples Trolley and many gated communities organize tours.
“We do not leave the house the month of December after 5:30 p.m.” Anderson said. “It is an understood thing. We love it. We sit outside most nights. People wave and shout ‘Merry Christmas’. It is just amazing. It is such a fun thing.”
“I feel like it is really special for our kids,” Manring added. “We have made it into a scavenger hunt. People have hot chocolate and Santa hats. My daughter has her birthday in December and she has her friends over to look at the lights. They can’t want to invite their friends over.”
“It’s something that really brings the community together,” Standish added.