By Beth Deitchman
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go!
From store windows and Disney theme parks to homes in your very own neighborhood, December brings shorter days that give way to festive light displays that, quite literally, make the season merry and bright. But if you haven’t started decorating your house—or if you simply don’t even know how to begin—we’ve pulled in some experts. The Great Christmas Light Fight returned to ABC this week with a host of holiday homes whose owners are each battling to be the brightest bearer of holiday cheer. We spoke with the series’ co-hosts, Taniya Nayak and Carter Oosterhouse, and asked them to share some of their expertise with Disney fans.
Both Taniya, an interior designer, and Carter, a designer and builder, stress that it can be “illuminating” to focus less upon lights and more upon the story that you want to tell with the decorations you place around your house. “I think that a great design starts with a story or a theme and that kind of creates the whole picture,” Taniya says, elaborating, “And that applies both with interior and all the way to your Christmas lights display. We’ve found that there are a lot of stories that we were kind of able to feel connected to, and it’s a great way to keep that theme together and stay focused on what you’re doing with your lights.”
A mistake many people make, Carter says, is to use too many lights. “They will throw lights on one side of the house and just put them everywhere. It’s just like in your home, when you walk into your living room and there’s not a healthy balance between your sofa and your other furniture around your living room. It’s the same with Christmas lights if there’s not a healthy balance, because there are too many lights over here and not enough over there. That can really be offsetting to the eye.” The analogy Taniya makes is to a good outfit that becomes a great one when you remove a single element, “to make it nice and clean,” she explains.
And, Taniya suggests, there’s an easy way to achieve that when you’re lighting your house: “Just follow the lines of your house. Do a nice outline—clean lines are always fun.”
When it comes to inspiration, you can look to local houses that catch your eye—and, of course, the spectacular displays on The Great Christmas Light Fight—but both Carter and Taniya stress that childhood memories can burn brighter than the most elaborate décor. Carter points out, “This year [on the show] we saw a lot of nostalgia, where people were bringing in older elements that they brought from the ’50s and ’60s, which was really cool because they refurbished them. They used pieces that were from the town where they grew up, and that brought back memories for them.” But what surprised Taniya, she says, is, “That randomly brought back memories for me—not that I grew up in these towns, but when I was a little kid I remember how these nativity scenes and inflatables looked.” Vintage pieces are a wonderful touch, Carter says, because “you can definitely tell whether it was made last week or was made in the sixties. You can see the difference.”
Taniya and Carter have both met Disney fans who have gone to great lengths to infuse their homes with that special Disney magic. “I went to a house this season and this guy is just head over heels in love with it’s a small world—and so am I,” Taniya remembers, sharing, “Every single year that I was going to Walt Disney World we would end on it’s a small world. It was my favorite, and the one that I always wanted to remember.” Taniya was blown away by the homeowner’s use of animatronics and music. “It was crazy in the best way,” she marvels.
At another home, Carter recalls a house that used a Disney castle as a background, with fireworks simulated by lighting effects. The foreground boasted large video screens that featured clips from Disney movies, pieced together to tell the story of the display. “It was way over the top but very Disney,” Carter says, and he noticed an extra sprinkling of pixie dust as he saw the excitement the display brought to onlookers. “The cool thing that we realized is that these people within the town may or may not have been able to get to Disney theme parks, so these guys brought Disney to them within their little town—which was so special.”
Taniya reveals that while it can be competitive, holiday lighting rarely turns into a heated battle. “It’s actually the opposite,” she says. “There’s a big Christmas light display community, and people within the community help each other out, which is so fitting.” Tune in as the The Great Christmas Light Fight continues on December 12 (with episodes airing at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET/PT) on ABC.