Post-gifts, post-feast, post-carols, if you find yourself wanting to squeeze the last drop of holiday spirit from this year’s season, there’s a place you can head until Dec. 31 that’s bound to put you in a Buddy the Elf state of mind.
In the maze of streets behind the restaurants fronting U.S. 41 across from The Moorings, like Andre’s Steakhouse, Fuse and Fuse BBQ, Mr. Tequila and Peace, Love and Little Donuts, there’s a beacon of light at 1009 29th Ave. N. (Well, an excess of 400,000 light bulbs, to be more precise.)
Each year from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, the home of Phillip Baum, Devon Foster and their five children transforms into the Yuletide Gardens Christmas Light Display. They invite anyone and everyone to stroll their grounds, which are blanketed in figurines, arches, character blow-ups, candy canes, reindeer and, of course, the big guy from the North Pole. They’ve been doing the display for six years, but this is the first year in a new home.
Visitors moved by the spirit of goodwill are encouraged to leave what they can in the red donation boxes sprinkled throughout the property, where 100 percent of what is collected is given back to the community. Usually, several thousand dollars goes to St. Matthew’s House, a homeless shelter, but this year, the family decided to help people they knew who could use a boost—a friend, Aaron Dyke, and his two children, who recently lost their wife and mother Angela Riddleberger Dyke to cystic fibrosis.
The lights are on for six more nights, from 6-11 p.m., so there’s still plenty of time for that last zap of festive cheer and to see what’s new this year (there’s always something new—for 2018, it was miniature Christmas villages and a corner devoted to Mickey and Minnie holiday scenes).
“I grew up without Christmas, and there’s a guy in Bonita who used to do a big display. I would go there and became friends with him, and it meant a lot to me,” Baum says. “I wanted to do the same thing for others. I realized it did a lot of good for the community and it brought people together.”
If you make some time between now and Jan. 1 to stop by, you’ll discover his labor of love and how it really is a gift to us all.
To plan a visit:
Yuletide Gardens Christmas Light Display
1009 29th Ave. N., Naples
(239) 963-7923
facebook.com/yuletide1386
