E AST O REGONIAN
WEEKEND, DECEMBER 21, 2019
GETTING IN THE
SPIRIT
Umatilla County residents get into the holiday
spirit with elaborate holiday displays
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The Bunch house near Desert View Elementary School features a 14-foot illuminated reindeer that towers over the yard, as well as a variety of lighted orbs. Despite the
outdoor display, the real magic of the Bunch House lies in the Christmas decorations that adorn every inch of the interior of the house.
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
H
ERMISTON — It was
only natural that Ron
Bunch would spice
up his home with a
couple knick-knacks
here and there during
Christmas. After all, his mother
always decorated during the
holiday season.
“And then it kind of
exploded,” he said.
The outside of the home
Ron shares with his wife,
Linda, is adorned with a
24-hour light display. It glows
more brightly than the dis-
plays of the other homes in the
cul-de-sac on West Sandpiper
Avenue. But the real magic is
inside the home.
“My friend tells me it looks
like Christmas puked in our
house,” Ron jokes.
The common area of the
home is stocked, and it takes
three days total for Ron to get
the decorations unpacked.
There are 32 Christmas
stockings hung throughout the
home, four artificial Christ-
mas trees, one of which is fiber
optic, another which is adorned
only in Oregon State University
ornaments, and more than 30,
18-gallon totes of decor to boot.
There’s a stocking that Ron’s
mom knitted when he was just a
baby. A fleet of reindeer welded
out of horseshoes. And atop an
entryway shelf sits an unset-
tling-looking elf with unseemly
long legs.
“When we find something
with a lot of character, we get
it,” Ron said. “If you can find it
at Walmart, we won’t have a lot
of it here.”
They said operating their
outdoor display has become
less costly since they purchased
LED lights. The pair, two for-
mer postmasters with the U.S.
Postal Service, said that hav-
ing a Christmas display from
the end of November till New
Year’s costs just $6 extra a
month on their utility bill.
“It’s negligible,” Linda said.
Ron and Linda are one of
a few locals who take holiday
decorating to the next level,
much to the delight of pass-
ersby and neighbors.
Ron West in Umatilla, for
instance, has been honing his
handcrafted display for the last
two decades. Glowing 10,000
lights strong, the display is vis-
ible from Highway 395.
There’s a sign attached to
the chimney of his home, which
reads “SANTA HERE.”
“That’s so he knows where
to go,” West said.
West is the maintenance
director at the Umatilla County
School District. He starts set-
ting up his Brownell Boulevard
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Ron West’s home on Brownell Boulevard in Umatilla features a variety of handmade decorations including hand-painted characters,
such as Winnie the Pooh, Charlie Brown, and Snoopy. West said that the display features more than 10,000 lights and takes him several
months to prepare.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
At the Kim and Harper Jones home on Northeast Third Avenue in Pendleton, the lights dance to a
different tune — the tune of Christmas songs, that is. The Jones’ home is carefully choreographed to
music and drivers can tune in to listen on 88.9 FM.
Christmas display in Septem-
ber, and everything — from a
towering tree made of lights to
the moving Snoopy display —
is handmade.
“Each year, I add something
more,” he said. “Next year, it’ll
be the Island of Misfit Toys
from ‘Rudolph.’”
West, who grew up in
Hermiston, started decorating
his home around 20 years ago
when his kids were little. When
his wife passed away, he con-
sidered stopping, but continued
the tradition on each year with
his kids.
“I probably wouldn’t do it
at this age,” he said. “But the
whole neighborhood loves it.”
West joked that his deco-
rations take him “too long” to
make. Karen and Mike Mon-
tegna on West Utah Avenue
in Irrigon could say the same.
Their vast front yard is jam-
packed with all sorts of moving
and stationary displays.
“Christmas is our favor-
ite time of year,” Karen said.
“We’ve always had a little bit
of something, and it just grew.”
The pair has lived in Irrigon
for 26 years, and retired from
life in the U.S. Navy.
In the front part of the yard
sits a rotating ferris wheel with
hand-painted characters that
took three years to make, and a
group of woodcut elves packing
gifts on Santa’s sleigh. Santa
himself is stuck on the chim-
ney, his legs poking out.
It was only very recently that
the pair opted to stuff the back
portion of their yard with store-
bought inflatable decorations. It
wasn’t an easy decision.
“I am anti-blowup,” Karen
said. “But they’re the only
things that are visible back
there.”
The couple’s secret to a yard
that draws visitors despite its
tucked-away location?
“We try to do a little bit at a
time,” Karen said.
They start decorating the
day after Thanksgiving and
add something new to their
repertoire each year. This year,
all the kids from “Peanuts” are
huddled under the flagpole in
their yard.
Kim and Harper Jones on
Northeast Third Avenue in
Pendleton have a light display
that rivals the one downtown.
The lights are synchronized to
their own personal radio sta-
tion. Even on a weeknight, a car
or two can be found sitting idle,
listening and watching.
And according to Kim,
the hours that go into crafting
each individual light display
are mostly put in by Harper,
a Pendleton doctor who also
sits on the Round-Up Board of
Directors.
“He puts it all together,” she
said. “He loves to give.”
Harper said the display
started as somewhat of a tech-
nical exercise.
“Initially, I’m a technical
person so I was interested in
the electronics and how it all
came together,” he said.
But now, he said, it’s more
about keeping the 11-year tra-
dition going for those who stop
by to enjoy the lights.
“There are some people who
go a little insane with their dis-
plays, like me,” he said. “But I
think anybody who does some-
thing, like a string of lights, is
putting in effort and doing a
good thing.”
It takes three days and one
manlift to pull the display
together.
“Takedown is just six
hours,” Harper said.