Town with stars on their roofs for Christmas?

December 7, 2006 5:41 AM

Trying to track down a town where a resident makes Christmas-light star decorations for the roof of every house in the town. Vaguely remembered details from an NPR story inside.

I heard this story on NPR in California in December somewhere between 1998 and 2000. There was a small town somewhere, and one resident had made stars out of Christmas lights and given them to everyone in the town over the years. People in town displayed them on their roofs. As new people built houses, he would make and give them their star.

The conflict in the story was some new development that was built on the edge of town, and the fact that people weren't really accepting them as part of the "real" town. The star-maker guy delivers a massive truckload of roof stars to them.

That's about all I remember. The town may have been in California, but I wouldn't swear to that detail.

A link to any article/info would be great; a link to the NPR story would be even better.

posted by mikepop to media & arts (4 answers total)

I can't seem to locate the story by searching on npr.org, but the site does have a Search Help form which lets you describe the story you're looking for, and someone will e-mail you back. If you're sure you heard it on NPR, that's probably the best way to go.
posted by cerebus19 at 6:05 AM on December 7, 2006

Perhaps Brisbane? one town south of San Francisco?
posted by bitdamaged at 7:42 AM on December 7, 2006

It is Brisbane. There was just a neat little pubic interest story about it on the weekend news.
posted by Wolfie at 9:19 AM on December 7, 2006

If it's Brisbane, I have a little experiential info. I wasn't aware the stars came from one guy; thought it was just a local tradition. I haven't been there much recently, since my chum moved away, but when I'd go up there (during the '90s) the stars were present on several houses, but certainly not all. As for physical detail, these are essentially pentagrams with Christmas lights attached along each line, and the roof-mounted stars are propped up so they're vertical, and facing the street.
posted by Rash at 9:57 AM on December 7, 2006