Tours illuminate city’s holiday spirit
By George P. Hassett

When winter rolls around to Somerville, Horacio Medeiros climbs up to his roof and begins his work. For the past 20 years Medeiros has worked tirelessly – sometimes up to 30 hours a week – on decorating his Mangus St. home in extravagant holiday fashion.
“I began decorating my home for my daughter when she was young. She loved how the house would light up. That was a long time ago now,” he said.
This year Medeiros’ home is part of the Somerville Arts Council’s annual Illuminations Tour – a 45 minute trolley ride through city streets, highlighting and celebrating the folk-artistry of residents who transform their homes into wild displays of holiday pomp. The tour began Saturday Dec. 17.

   Medeiros said he spends hundreds of dollars each year to improve his home‚Äôs Christmas appearance.
   ‚ÄúEvery year I buy something new for the house. Sometimes it‚Äôs just something small like flowers and sometimes it‚Äôs something big and expensive like a sign or new lights,‚Äù he said.
    The tour is mainly concentrated in East Somerville, said Public Information Officer Lucy Warsh, because that is where the highest concentration of decorated homes are. But this year, there has been an effort to widen the scope of the tour to include  sections of the city that have been excluded in the past because of narrow streets and poor traffic patterns, she said.
    To go along with that effort, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone has put a significant focus on this year‚Äôs holiday pageantry, said Gregory Jenkins, Director of the Arts Council.
   Curtatone is sponsoring a contest in which Somerville residents vote on the ‚ÄúBest Holiday House‚Äù and the ‚ÄúBest Holiday Street.‚Äù This is the first year for the two competitions designed to cultivate a sense of community cheer, said Jenkins.
   The tour begins and ends at Somerville City Hall where coffee, hot chocolate and cookies will be served while choral music is performed by the Somerville Community Chorus.
   But regardless of contest results, cookies or choral music, Medeiros will be doing the same thing this year he has done for the last 20.
   And he wouldn‚Äôt want it any other way.
   ‚ÄúI started doing it for my daughter, and now I do it for my grandsons. They love it just like she did. I‚Äôm 60 years old but I can‚Äôt stop. Each year I add new things and try to make it more beautiful for my family,‚Äù he said.