Farley’s Christmas Wonderland

Last week, I took my girlfriend Ana and her seven-year old daughter Athena to check out a hidden holiday treasure located deep in the heart of Santa Cruz’s midtown. It was a chilly, clear night and I was exhausted after a long day at work, yet thrilled and energized at the chance to show the girls this iconic local beacon of Yuletide cheer.

Neither had experienced this grassroots Santa Cruz tradition before, so I tried to keep the fantastic scale of what I was about to show them a secret. Parking on the street was scarce, so we ended up having to walk about a block to reach our destination, but when we finally arrived, I relished the sight of both of their jaws dropping in unison.

Entering the property was like walking straight into Santa’s workshop on the north pole— multicolored lights strung up everywhere, life-size nutcracker soldiers standing sentinel at the entrance, Christmas trees of varying sizes crowded the space, along with reindeer, tinsel, giant toy blocks, gingerbread houses and brightly wrapped presents. Excited children ran to and fro as their loving parents struggled to keep up while young couples walked casually through the stunning display, stopping periodically to admire some previously unseen treasure.

Every year, legendary local surfer Pat Farley assembles this sprawling and stunning Christmas shrine in his front yard for all to experience and appreciate, a display so over-the-top and in-your-face that even old Saint Nick himself would t surely approve. So exhaustive and complete is his display that it would take all the elves in Santa’s workshop weeks of collective effort to assemble. Animatronic polar bears, penguins, and reindeer line the premises, which includes installations showcasing valuable Christmas memorabilia, such as vintage 1800s Christmas cards..

The whole scene truly commands your attention and in all honesty, it would have taken us hours to take in every last little detail. As the girls perused Santa’s gift shop, where Farley sells Christmas gear such as mugs, books, beanies, and other wares, I thought it would the perfect time to corner the elder statesman of the surf to gather a little insight into his truly one-of-a-kind Christmas shrine.

How long have you been doing this Pat?

Nineteen years now.

Tell me a little bit about the genesis of your display. Have you always been a Christmas person?

I grew up in San Francisco, my father’s godfather would put a giant tree in his house. He had one of this giant Victorians, so you could go up to the second floor and touch the top of the tree when he put it in. Twenty years ago my wife took me to Disneyland for Veteran’s Day. We didn’t know until we got there that that’s when they started putting up their Christmas decorations. They had the giant tree with the garland and when I saw that I flashed back to being a kid, so I said, “You know what, I’m going to take the property that we rent and create my own Christmas land.”

I started off quickly. At Home Depot, everyone had surplus at that time, so I went in there and ended up buying Christmas Trees for about 25-50 dollars each. When I left, I had a full forest of about 40 trees. Then I built the log cabin and the houses and things just took off from there.

Putting this all together must be a lot of work.

Oh, I needed a lot of extra help this year. I still need help! I need a full-time electronics guy. I mean, I’ve got an owl that just went out, two fairies are out, I got a fog machine out, I’m just constantly trying to do maintenance myself, to the point where I can’t do other things. We timed it today, it’s a two hour set-up every night. That’s how long it’s taking us. My wife and I  started at 3:30, and I barely opened up at 5:30.

You’ve even got some animatronics in there! How did you get your hands on these decorations?

A lot of the stuff I made. I have to look around for other decorations. Like the fairies, they all came from England. I had a connection through the Royal Marines, who connected me with people getting rid of all this stuff. If I want something though, I have to order a year in advance, they’re so backed up doing stuff for everybody.

I saw that you have a little gift shop in there selling some local stuff. That must help out a little bit with everything, but I’d imagine that accumulating all this stuff has been pretty costly?

I got a forty-foot container that I rent that’s forty-five minutes from here. That’s the cheapest, and closest, that I could rent that would hold all this stuff. All the trees go in there. Plus I’ve got a bunch of storage units. PGE fines us twenty percent for all the electricity we use,. And then the daily maintenance. When I have to make something, everything costs. Motors, I go through a lot of motors because being so close to the ocean the condensation gets into everything. The motors go out on the fairies and I’ve constantly got to replace them.

I would assume that, with a labor of love such as this, that a lot of the reward comes when you see the faces of the little kids when they step inside. Can you tell me how itfeels to see their reactions?

Actually, I enjoy the adults more. The kids, let’s just say we’ve had some problems. Some of the parents just don’t watch their kids and they end up breaking things. They terrorize. They start running around and I have to keep telling them to slow down. Tonight, I’ve already had to bark at a few kids (laughs). Two kids tore up some stuff in one of the houses and the parents just said, “They’re just being kids”, I said, “Is that how you raise your kids? That it’s alright to go into a stranger’s yard and start ripping things up?”.

I guess times have changed with this more “hand-off” parenting approach we’ve been seeing lately (laughs).

Yeah, I’ll say!

Is there anything you have on your wish-list that you’d like Santa to bring you to add to the collection? Maybe some piece de resistance that you’d like to include in the future?

What was on my wish-list for the last month was the very first Christmas book, “Christmas Tales”, that you’ll see in there. My brother sprung for that. It was sitting at some book collectors in London and I couldn’t touch it, but now it’s mine. Now I’ve got the first Christmas book to go along with the second and fourth in my collection. The fourth one, according to some collectors, is one of six copies, and I have the only first edition.

Amazing. How long does all this stay up?

Until New Year’s.

That’s something else. What’s your favorite part about putting this display up every year?

I love to see all the smiling faces. Plus, I get to see all these friends and family members that I haven’t seen for a long time. I’m not all that social, my world goes from here to the river mouth and back. Apart from that, there’s not much else in my world. And then it’s a year long job, after I get everything taken down, it’s maintenance from there.

How long can you see yourself continuing to offer this holiday spectacle to the public?

For as long as I can.

Be sure to check out Farley’s Christmas Wonderland for yourself! Every night this month, up until New Year’s Eve.

108 Seaview Ave, Santa Cruz, CA, 95062