Residents and visitors to trolleys and bicycles this weekend to soak up the illuminated atmosphere of the city’s festively decorated neighborhoods this year’s Illuminations Tour kicked off. — Photo by Douglas Yu

By Douglas Yu

The houses in Somerville tried to out do each other as the 18th Illuminations Tour kicked off on Saturday night. Each house seemed brighter than the one before it. Six trollies lined up outside of City Hall, ready to entertain over a thousand participants with the festive lights and Christmas-themed features that decorate the houses in the neighborhoods and stories about the history of the city.

Many people and their loved ones were already waiting in the City Hall’s concourse with the tour maps an hour before the tour officially started. They were excited to find out that each trolley goes to different part of the city.

Peter Heller, who has lived in Somerville for 25 years, was one of the tour guides at the Illuminations Tour.

“I’ve been volunteering for five or six years now,” Heller said. “This year is different, because these are Thalia Tringo’s buses. She’s a local realtor, and she hires the buses. She offers commentary, and she really knows about the city.”

Heller, at one moment during the tour night, was the guide on Bus D, the one that went to the western part of the city. The bus stopped when the passengers oohed and aahed at the extravaganza of lights. Every time the driver rang the bell as a compliment to those decorations, the owner of the house would stand out on the their porches, waving at the passengers and taking pictures.

Tringo, the president of the Thalia Tringo Real Estate, made Somerville foodies’ mouths water when she introduced them to the multicultural restaurants around the neighborhood. Tringo pointed out her favorite Chinese, Turkish and Portuguese eateries when the bus took turns through the most prosperous neighborhoods, such as Davis Square.

“So Tringo brought her own perspectives about the restaurants, and that was really fun,” Heller said. “The tour is what makes Somerville special. It’s celebrating our culture and the diversity of our culture. Everybody is just very happy about it.”

In addition to those shining and sparkling lights, the passengers constantly applauded the giant lit-up snowmen, spinning bears, hand waving Santa Clauses, and running deer that brighten the city at the darkest time of year.

The Somerville Arts Council, a cultural council that organizes multiple cultural events across the city, including ArtBeat, started the Illuminations Tour program 18 years ago.

“The illuminations Tour was started by our predecessor Cecily Miller, and it’s grown,” Director of Somerville Arts Council, Gregory Jenkins said. “When I first started organizing the tour 14 years ago, there were 10 tours in total. And now, we have 29 tours that go out.”

In previous years, only the neighborhood of East Somerville was part of the event. Four years ago, Jenkins said, the tour was expanded to the western part of the city.

“The whole point of the tour is celebrating the holidays, and looking at the folk art of lights, and all the creations that all the people put into the holidays,” Jenkins said. He mentioned that all the residents decorated their houses voluntarily, and the Somerville Arts Council merely identified the aesthetics and creativity of people in the community.

Jenkins explained the intricacy of designing the tour map. He said the tour is usually limited to 45 to 50 minutes.

“What we have to do is to figure out the best route, and how to not double and how to keep together, so there is consistency.” Jenkins said. “Occasionally, we added streets, because certain streets dropped off. And also, there are a lot of houses that dropped off, so sadly, there are probably less houses decorated.”

“Somerville is just an amazing place for people to come out and to be festive and civic-minded,” Jenkins added. To add to the celebration, the Somerville Bicycle Committee has also for the past five  years organized a bike tour each year that falls on the same day as Illuminations Tour.

Jenkins was a busy guy during the event. For every round of the tour, he had to make sure that all the passengers got on board. Once a bus started its tour, another bus might just finish. Once again, Jenkins had to make sure that everyone, young and old, safely got off the bus.

“It’s my work,” Jenkins said, smiling. He said that Somerville residents decorated their houses with more plastic figurines and blow-ups over the years, instead of just lights in the past.

“Certain houses seemed to be adding more decorations,” Jenkins remarked about his expectations for next year’s event. “So it involves changes every year.”