Organizers of one of the Bay Area’s best-known holiday lights displays have announced that it will be Christmas again at Casa del Pomba, after they were forced to cancel their event last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The dazzling display at the Livermore home of Deacon Dave Rezendes returns Friday, Dec. 3 for its 38th season, according to a press release from Casa del Pomba, or “House of the Dove,” as Rezendes’ home is known.
Opening ceremonies will start at 6:30 p.m., Dec. 3 with a Christmas procession down Hillcrest Avenue in Livermore. The display at 352 Hillcrest Avenue continues nightly through at least New Year’s Day. For the display this year, attendees must wear masks.
Deacon Dave’s light display has been an East Bay holiday tradition for more than 35 years, with more than 600,000 lights being strung around his property in previous years. The light show put on by Rezendes, a deacon for St. Michael Catholic Church, has been showcased on cable and international TV; HGTV once ranked it among the biggest home displays in the United States.
Last year, Rezendes was “saddened” to announce that the 2020 display had to be cancelled. Before vaccines became widely available, much of the Bay Area imposed stay-at-home orders through the holiday season to prevent hospitals from being overrun by a surge of COVID-19 cases.
Rezendes expressed concern about managing the crowds of people, who usually arrive on foot or in cars to see his display. Volunteers would have been tasked with making sure people walking through the display wore masks and practiced social distancing. He also said that many of his volunteers were older and therefore in the high-risk category for COVID-19.
With the return of Casa del Pomba, another Tri-Valley family also announced that their well-known light display would be returning after canceling in 2020.
“Widmer-World,” presented by the Widmer family in Pleasanton, is returning with organizers creating new scenes and lighting for their display. The show at 3671 Chelsea Court, Pleasanton starts Dec. 1. Weather permitting, it runs nightly from 6 to 9 p.m., through Jan. 5.
Over the years, Bay Area homeowners, neighborhoods, businesses and organizations have gone to wonderfully over-the-top lengths to mount vibrant displays of holiday lights around their homes, gardens, parks and other outdoor spaces.
In the coming weeks, this news organization will check in with the best-known lights displays to see which will be open this season. If you know of a display that should be mentioned in a forthcoming list, email [email protected]
