In the San Francisco Bay-area town of Livermore, California, at 352 Hillcrest Avenue, 902,120 lights illuminate the nights leading up to Christmas.

Those bright bulbs are award-winning — and are all coordinated by a Catholic deacon.

Deacon Dave Rezendes of the Diocese of Oakland, a winner of ABC’s 2024 The Great Christmas Light Fight TV show, has become famous for his magnificent Christmas display at his lifelong home in Northern California. 

“Deacon Dave,” as he is known, began building his elaborate Christmas displays in 1982. They have grown in size and scope since, drawing thousands of visitors as well as local elected officials and clergy.

Deacon Dave is a fourth-generation Livermore resident and a descendant of ranchers. He spoke this week with the Register.

Growing up, he attended parochial school at St. Michael’s parish, where he is today assigned as a permanent deacon. He has had a special affection for Christmas since childhood and recalls watching his grandmother create a miniature Christmas village with antique houses around the family Christmas tree.

He served in the U.S. Army in the 1960s and once owned a security firm and worked for the Diocese of Oakland. He was ordained a permanent deacon for Oakland in 1982; as he was unmarried, he has remained celibate, per Church norms.

He hired a local teen to help him construct a Christmas village in 1982. The display had what seemed to him at the time a staggering number of lights, with 2,000 bulbs. Today, his displays approach 1 million lights. His motivation, he said, “was to do something for the community. It just kept growing from there.”

Today, his Christmas displays draw 3,000 viewers each night. Each year has a theme; the 2024 theme is “The World Celebrates Christmas.” 

He has 20 volunteers who help him, including some from his parish. First-year volunteers are designated by a red cap with a white dove; volunteers of three or more years don a red jacket.

Holly Loberg is a St. Michael’s parishioner who has been a volunteer for more than 20 years, painting, decorating, building, hanging garlands, organizing volunteers and “getting the crowds excited when they come.” She wants to participate, she told the Register, “because of the Christmas joy it gives me and those who come to visit.”

Neil Donat and his wife Teri are Lutherans who have been volunteers for eight years, planning, building, decorating and greeting visitors once the display is up. As Neil told the Register, “This is our gift to the community. It offers people the opportunity to set aside their troubles for an evening and enjoy the Christmas spirit. Seeing it put a smile on people’s faces puts a smile on our faces.”

Deacon Dave’s home sits on a one-acre site his family has owned for decades. He calls it Casa del Pomba (“House of the Dove”). Each room has an image of a dove, and there are multiple aviaries on the property with different kinds of doves. The site also has a meditation garden and a chapel, the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, which periodically draws local clergy for Mass and retreats.

Inside the home are a variety of Christmas trees in each room, including one that is two stories tall and has 1,000 ornaments. The general public is invited to tour the front exterior of the home; the home’s interior, chapel and meditation garden are for friends and clergy only.

One feature of the property is an artificial creek, waterfall and bridge over the waterway. The bridge is known as “Proposal Bridge,” as it has been a popular spot for marriage proposals through the years — 83 total, as of 2024. Deacon Dave has been called upon to officiate at some of the weddings.

The Christmas display typically goes from the first Friday of December through New Year’s Day. The display is kicked off with a procession; this year’s procession included participants carrying the flags of different nations and white dove kites. 

The Livermore mayor is a regular participant, and Deacon Dave reads from Genesis. When he reads, “Let there be light,” the 900,000-plus lights are turned on.

The light display continues nightly, 6-9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. It takes 10 minutes to walk through the display, Loberg said, and the wait to get in can be up to two hours.

Donat said the effect on visitors is magical: “They tell us, ‘This is absolutely marvelous, overwhelming, joyous.’”

 

Year-Round Activity

Putting on the Christmas display is a year-round activity for Deacon Dave. 

In 2024, volunteers began building in July, and the lights began going up in August. The deacon has two buildings on-site he uses for storage. His electricity bills are not cheap: “I have to be sitting down when I look at them.” The ABC award comes with a $50,000 prize, which will help fund future displays and support Deacon Dave’s personal charities, to which visitors also contribute with donations. Deacon Dave’s favorite charity, which he oversees at his parish, is Santa’s Secret Service, which donates gifts to the needy at Christmastime.

The lights and decorations come down in the new year; volunteers will be putting all in storage through March. Among the volunteers is Deacon Dave’s 101-year-old mother, Norma, who still helps wrap individual ornaments for storage.

Deacon Dave noted that his displays are ultimately an evangelization tool. In an interview with EWTN News Nightly, he noted that there has “always been a religious message scattered throughout the display.” 

Additionally, he continued, his is a “ministry of lights.” When someone approaches and says he’s been away from the Church for a time, Deacon Dave writes down his name and contact number and promises to call and invite him back to Church in the new year. He also hands out bookmarks with the year’s theme and a prayer he’s composed. In 2024, each light symbolized a prayer for world peace. Previous years were dedicated to such causes as a cure for cancer or aid to veterans.

Deacon Dave concluded, “Mine is a ministry of lights. When people see our display, they can’t help but think of the visible light of Christ in our midst. I hope they take that spirit and light and go out and share it with the world.”

 

 WATCH ON EWTN

LEARN MORE

Christmas - Deacon Dave’s House of the Dove.