Snoopy greets one-year-old Raeghan Thompson, from Newport Beach, Calif., at the "Snoopy House" display that Jim Jordan started 44 years ago, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, on the lawn outside City Hall in Costa Mesa, Calif. The city of Costa Mesa offered to host the massive, animated display of Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" Christmas characters after Jordan lost the home where the tradition was born and flourished to foreclosure. The move saved a wildly popular Christmas display that Jordan says draws 80,000 people _ including busloads of visitors, school groups and lines of children waiting to see Santa. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
COSTA MESA, Calif (AP) - Jim Jordan created a heart-warming Christmas display of Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" characters more than 40 years ago at his Southern California home, and it became a holiday tradition as tens of thousands of people showed up each year to see the sparkling extravaganza.
Families trekked to the Orange County suburb of Costa Mesa to sip hot apple cider and share the wonder as seen through their children's eyes amid twinkling Christmas lights, artificial snow and a Santa Claus that whisked through the air and down a chimney for spectators. It became so popular that busloads of visitors and school groups visited Jordan's childhood home each year.
When he lost the house to foreclosure, it looked like the death of a tradition - until the city stepped in to save Christmas.
A week ago, Costa Mesa officials offered to host the display on the lawn outside City Hall. The lights were turned on Tuesday evening in a ceremony attended by a large crowd of families toting toddlers and cameras. Santa is also attending the festivities and then will make nightly appearances Dec. 18 to Dec. 23.
The move saved a Christmas display that Jordan says draws 80,000 people each year to see Santa and the nearly 200-foot stretch of characters, colorful cottages and other creations.
"I feel I am in the middle of a Frank Capra movie - the Christmas miracle movie - I really do," Jordan said, recalling the classic 1946 drama "It's a Wonderful Life."
In some Orange County homes, the tradition has been passed on through generations as those who grew up visiting the so-called "Snoopy House" now take their own children there.
Jordan, 59, said he started the project as a teenager in the yellow, single-story house where he was raised. Little by little, he expanded the display until it reached mammoth proportions,featuring an ice skating Charlie Brown and dancing Snoopy.
"My wife says I am a frustrated Walt Disney," he said, chuckling.
