Oddball Home for the Holidays

You’re driving around neighborhoods searching out Christmas lights with your screaming kids hopped up on hot chocolate and peppermints. “Stop here! No, there!” The little darlings trample over fencing and a lawn jockey while the plastic baby Jesus cringes fearfully in His swaddling. Thirty seconds later, Junior’s grabbing the donkey like he’s in Mexico.

What you need are 50,000 trance-inducing lights, 40 dazzling trees of varying sizes, and a blaring holiday soundtrack -- all under one roof. Every night through Christmas, David Chuchla has your one-stop Yuletide fix: A Christmas Fantasy at 4237 West State Street. Chuchla, a kindhearted soul with faraway eyes and red cheeks -- just like you-know-who -- has mixed old-world traditionalism with contemporary kitsch in his abode packed with glittery angels, jerky animatronic toys, and tiny towns. It’s like crashing Kris Kringle’s afterparty.