If someone says they saw “the holiday house” in Atwater, there’s a good chance you know the house to which they refer. Near the corner of Juniper and First in Atwater one home stands out as having the most consistent and enthusiastic holiday decorations you can imagine.
The home belongs to 57-year-old Jesse Diaz. He works for the City of Atwater, but since 2013 his more famed service to the community has been his holiday decorations. He and his wife Christine (who focuses more on the interior decor) started with Halloween and Christmas, but it has now grown to include everything from Thanksgiving to St. Patrick’s Day.
Diaz’s front yard is a rotating display of seasonal spirit, and a known landmark for Atwater residents who can mark the seasons by his decor. This has not always been the case, as he discovered when he first arrived at his current home.
“When we moved here in 2013 we only had 15 trick or treaters. We’d go around town and we didn’t see anybody doing anything. There’s no spirit, nothing. It felt like bah humbug for Christmas. So we started doing it more,” says Diaz. “I started collecting more things. It went from the 15 [trick or treaters] to 250 to 450. Last year, I made 825 [candy] bags.” By the end of the night, he’d given them all away.
Diaz estimates that last year he had more than 1,600 people come by during Halloween.
Even the police chief and the mayor have stopped by to admire his work, says Diaz, but it was only recently that he learned of how much people love his decorations.
“It was one year, when my girls were here … they go, ‘Dad, Dad, the police are outside.’ I go, ‘OK, what are they doing?’” says Diaz. Their answer: “Taking pictures of your decorations.”
Diaz initially thought the police might have thought the decorations were stolen, but later found out the truth.
“I didn’t know they were taking pictures all this time and putting them on their Facebook page,” says Diaz with a laugh. “I didn’t even know they were doing it, you know? They were doing it all that time.”
Putting together the Halloween display is no small feat. It can take roughly two weeks to get everything in its proper place, especially when considering all the wiring to navigate to keep the inflatables alive and the lights beaming. Even so, Diaz believes it’s worth the effort.
“I’m blessed. I’m gonna keep doing this until I can’t climb a ladder, put my dragons up, or climb the tree to hang my decorations,” says Diaz. “I’m still healthy. I’ll still do what I can do. It’s our way of giving back to the community. We don’t ask for anything in return.”
This year is the first that Diaz has added a designated photo area. Every year people take pictures with his display, so now there is a spot to do just that. Two backdrops are available, one for the taller subjects, and one that features two tiny chairs for small trick or treaters, which were constructed with the help of one of his daughters.
At this point, neighborhood children have grown up seeing the decorations go up year after year. Babies who were once brought in strollers by their parents now walk up on their own. One of the most valuable impacts for Diaz is the spread of enthusiasm he’s seen throughout town since that first Halloween.
“You know what, now you see more people decorating. I hope maybe we had something to do with that. I hope we inspired people to do that, just to start getting back to the festivities. Life is short,” says Diaz. “So you think about it, if you can bring happiness and joy to people, then you should feel good about it.”
He asks for nothing in return, but he wouldn’t mind if anyone had a lead on where to get a 12-foot-tall animatronic hovering witch he once saw at Home Depot. He knows the perfect spot for it.