By George P. Hassett

On Glen Street the Travassos decorate their home with 3,000 to 5,000 lights during the holiday season despite an electric bill they say costs “too much.” On Springfield Street Jerry Carvalho continues the tradition his father began. On Albion Street Manuel Amaral, a candy maker from the Azores, sketches out his holiday designs all year and starts building them the Friday after Thanksgiving.

The three families have been part of a Somerville tradition for decades and now are also part of a book documenting it. The Somerville Arts Council published “Somerville: City of Lights” last year, a collection of photographs and essays on the extravagant holiday light displays seen on city streets each year around the holidays.

The decorations have also inspired a tour. On the darkest day of the year sightseers meander around Winter Hill and East Somerville, the two neighborhoods least affected by the city’s gentrification, to enjoy the holiday handiwork of mostly Italian and Portuguese craftsmen.

In “City of Lights” Somerville historian Bob Doherty said the tours provide a link between long-term residents and new arrivals.

“The excitement of going on the tour is from the new Somerville. The people who are actually providing the lights are the older generation. All that stuff they brought from the old country. The new Somervillians are bringing the energy and the enthusiasm,” he said.

The tours are a new holiday tradition for modern Somerville, said Carvalho.
have in the future,” he said.

“City of Lights” paints the holiday decorators as craftsmen “expanding the idea of art beyond the gallery and into the street.” However, Al Pellechia, who said the highlight of his decorations are the Santa Claus and reindeer that sit on his roof, said his goal is simple.

“I’m kind of a ham and I love the attention,” he said.

Lenny Rigione works in his basement, or “Santa’s Workshop” as he calls it, crafting handmade wooden figurines for his Central Street home. Rigione is trained in carpentry but self-taught as an artist. In “City of Lights” he said he puts in the hours of work to impress neighborhood youngsters.

‚ÄúI do it for the kids who stop by and say oooh and aaah,‚Äù he said.   

Chris Braiotta is a guide on the tours and grew up with the holiday tradition as his father decorated the home each year because “It was quite simply the done thing. And if that’s not artistic impulse I don’t know what is,” he said.

Rachel Strutt, of the arts council, said the tours routinely reach capacity and sell 1,000 tickets. For sightseers who miss the one day event tour maps are sold at McIntyre and Moore Booksellers in Davis Square to allow them to lead their own tours of holiday Somerville.