A display of heart

June Casagrande

COSTA MESA -- After 34 years, Jim Jordan was about ready to pack it in

-- the eye-popping “Peanuts” Christmas display he installs at his

mother’s home each year was just too much work.

Volunteer helpers from years past had moved on, leaving Jordan with

just a few family and friends to help install the moving mechanical

display that attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year to the

corner of Santa Ana Avenue and Albert Place.

But when Costa Mesa Fire Capt. Brian Roberts caught wind that Jordan

was thinking of packing Snoopy and friends away for good, he got his

elves in motion.

“It had to go up,” Roberts said. “It’s a great community event. I’ve

been stopping by here for years.”

Using his connection with the local Fire Explorers youth group, he

recruited about a half dozen young people to pitch in.

“I was just so thankful and so warmed over about these people that

were going to offer their time, it really made the difference,” Jordan

said.

Jordan and Roberts spent Friday installing some of the less glamorous

foundations for the exhibit -- items like the stage that holds a live

Santa and mechanical workings of the flying sleigh. Their work paved the

way for the Explorers on Saturday to help bring Snoopy and Santa.

“About 200 children get to see Santa here every year,” Jordan said.

“We love doing this and we really try to make it fun for the kids.”

Since Jordan and friends began setting up this wonderland 35 years ago

at his mother Ruth Jordan’s corner lot, they have since dubbed it

“grandmother’s house.” And in the 35 years it has gone up, it has

inspired awe in more children than he can recall.

“There have been miracles here,” Jordan said. “One year, there was a

little boy around 9 running around, enjoying the exhibit and yelling. But

when you looked over you saw his father was crying. Turns out, they had

lost the mother to cancer months before and his father said that was the

first time since that the boy had said a single word. We all started

crying.”

So, partly for such ghosts of Christmas past, it appears the exhibit

has a solid future.

“I think it should go on forever,” Roberts said.