Local Devonshire Christmas house lights up one last time

This holiday season, Hollywood visited Novato. The Devonshire Christmas house competed for the best Christmas display and will be shown on national television. The Rombeiro family has been decorating for 27 years, and this will be their last.                             The Rombeiros are one of the selected finalists on The Great Christmas Light Fight on ABC and will be on television in 2019. A judge came on November 4 to tour the house, and an abundance of people filled the street to support the Rombeiros.                                       “We start decorating on September 1 and we get very little sleep September to January,” said Kathleen Rombeiro, who helps set up the Christmas house every year.
Every night the Christmas house is open, there are many people lined up outside their house wanting to see the decorations. The Rombeiros also allow everyone to walk inside their house to view fully decorated rooms.                                                                                             Sophomore Grace Keller has gone to the Christmas House with her family for nine years.
“They made it better this year since it was their last year, and they added more since they were on the TV show,” said Keller.
There are over 200,000 lights spanning in and outside the house and over 50,000 candy canes are handed out each year. The Rombeiros have a donation box to help cover these costs.
“The donations help a little with the PG&E bill,” Rombeiro said. “Our electric bill for the month of December usually runs [from] $2200 to $2500.”
The Rombeiro’s received support from Novato citizens who showed up to witness their last year of the Rombeiro’s decorating.
“There were more than 400 people with the street blocked off,” said Keller.