Lucky seventh place

June Casagrande

Gay Wassall-Kelly and Bill Kelly are known throughout the Balboa

Peninsula as people who don’t know the meaning of the word

“overboard” -- at least when it comes to holiday decorating. That’s

why the couple was a part of a recent A&E; TV broadcast titled

“Ultimate Holidaytown USA.” And that’s why, even though Balboa didn’t

win the contest, the Kellys still count themselves and their

community as winners.

“Balboa Village was chosen seventh out of 20 cities, and seventh

out of 20 is pretty good,” Gay said.

The program, which aired on Dec. 18, featured some of Balboa’s

biggest claims to holiday fame: Footage of the annual Newport Harbor

Christmas Boat Parade and, with it, many of the homes along the

parade route that are part of the parade’s “Ring of Lights” holiday

home-decorating competition.

Gail Ossipoff, spokeswoman for the Newport Beach Conference and

Visitors Bureau, summed up in an e-mail to the Kellys some of the

reasons that Balboa warranted national attention: “Our truly

eye-popping holiday decorations, fun, unique holiday celebrations and

endless holiday spirit definitely captured the attention of the

producers at A&E;,” Ossipoff wrote to the Kellys.

It helped that the Kellys’ decorations were in place even before

Thanksgiving. And it especially helped that those decorations

included 18 Christmas trees in their front yard, about 400 strings of

lights, numerous plywood cutouts and several 8-foot inflatable

ornaments.