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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.
Fridays, Saturdays, 6-11 p.m.; Mondays-Thursdays, Sundays, 6-10 p.m. Starts: Nov. 23. Continues through Dec. 25, 2007