For Jason Sebald, collecting Christmas lights has been a family tradition dating back to the early ‘80s. “It all started when I was a kid,” explained the Pasadena resident. “We lived in Dundalk at the time, and my grandparents and great-grandparents all put up lots of lights. I loved it.”
The family’s passion for Christmas lights carried on after moving to Pasadena in 1986. “My dad had a house built, and we lived on the same block as the rest of my family. We all put up Christmas lights on each of our houses, and it started to become kind of like a competition,” said Sebald. “Once I started working part-time and had my own money, I would use it to buy as many Christmas decorations as I could. When I moved out on my own, I took all my Christmas stuff with me. Since then, I’ve continued to upgrade and add more.”
Today, the Sebald home at 1221 Sedge Court off of Tick Neck Road in Pasadena boasts well over 60,000 lights, as well as thirty-some years’ worth of Christmas decorations, ranging from character blow-ups, to vintage lawn ornaments, to photo-op cut-outs, to a children’s playhouse-turned-gingerbread cottage, to a lighted walkway, character meet-and-greets and more.
For added fun, there’s also snow. “I added a snow machine a couple years ago,” noted Sebald, who owns a DJ business, Shadow Sound & Lighting. “It’s just soap bubbles, but the kids absolutely love it. They grab chunks of it and have snowball fights. I have it out every evening.”
New for this year are a few character blow-up items, including Bluey and The Grinch, and a “Welcome To WhoVille” walkway. Sebald also revealed that Santa and The Grinch will make appearances on select evenings throughout the season.
On any given Friday or Saturday evening in December, Sebald said there are easily around 200 vehicles that come through to admire his house. “We’re in a cul-de-sac, so we’ll have cars that just drive around to look at it briefly, and then we’ll have cars that park and people will get out to come see it up close. Sometimes we’ll have cars parked all the way up Tick Neck Road,” he said. “Sometimes I go out there and direct traffic so neighbors’ driveways aren’t getting blocked.”
Asked if the inside of his home is just as decorated as the outside, Sebald laughed. “My wife decorates the inside. She married into the whole Christmas spirit theme, and she does a great job.”
As for the reason Sebald continues to put up such an expansive Christmas display each year, he didn’t hesitate with his response. “I do it for all the kids,” he emphasized. “I like seeing their reactions. When they pull up, get out and walk over here, and you hear them go “oh wow”…it’s just so fun to watch them soak it all in.”
Anyone interested in seeing the Sebald home, which has become locally known as Pasadena’s “House Of Christmas”, can do so each evening from 5pm-11pm. The home is located at 1221 Sedge Court off of Tick Neck Road. To stay up to date on Santa and Grinch appearances, be sure to like The House Of Christmas’s Facebook page.
