Inspired by his mom’s plentiful indoor decorations, Manny Verzola decided a few years ago he was moving the celebration of Christmas outdoors.
In 2019, the St. Pius X senior began assembling a holiday scene that now draws gawkers from all over to his family’s home in Festus at 2835 Heather Wood Lane. His brother, Zeke, a freshman at St. Pius, helps his brother starting in November.
“I love Christmas lights,” Verzola said. “My mom is really big on Christmas decorations. She’s done interior tours. There are trees in every room and no place where it’s not Christmas.
“I’m really big into spreading joy. It brings out the community, students, teachers to visit. Sometimes there are multiple cars out there stopped. It gives me a sense of purpose, a real task to complete in December. I enjoy the logistics of it.”
There isn’t a central theme to Verzola’s outdoor menagerie of sleighs, snowmen, Christmas trees, Santa and his team of reindeer and a manger laid out in his family’s sprawling front yard. White lights sparkle from the home, around the boundary of the yard and long driveway. Verzola said he’s bought the majority of the decorations from a local home improvement store.
“They see me coming,” he joked.
The display stays up each season until the epiphany, which is Jan. 6. Usually, Manny and Zeke start putting it up the first day of November. But Manny is the manager for the St. Pius girls volleyball team. The Lancers’ season didn’t end until they won the Class 4 state championship Nov. 7. It usually takes the Verzola brothers a few weeks to complete the display.
“Grandpa comes in on Thanksgiving and gives us a final boost,” Manny said.
With just one semester left at St. Pius, people have been asking Manny if he plans to carry on the tradition after he graduates. He’s still uncommitted to a college, but he wants to study aviation with the goal of becoming a pilot. He has a 4.3 GPA at St. Pius.
“That’s been a question a lot. How does this work next year? Zeke has made it known that he doesn’t want to take over this operation. It takes a lot of work. I’m committed to doing it.”
For the past 35 years, the movie “Christmas Vacation” has been added to a long list of classics people watch every year. The Chevy Chase comedy ranks right up there with “A Christmas Story” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” as the most popular non-animated stories. My first date with my wife, Montra, was going to see “Christmas Vacation” when it first hit theaters. That was Jan. 3, 1990. Verzola has been called Chase’s character, Clark Griswold, more than once.
“That’s the name I get called the most. My grandparents hung a sign of (Griswold) in the yard. We watch it every Christmas. We even went to (Fox Theater) for “A night with Chevy Chase” and watched the film. Afterward, Chevy Chase came out and talked.”
With thousands of lights and dozens of ornaments to tend to, Verzola said there’s always “technical issues” to fix. He said snow isn’t a problem for the delicate wiring, but rain is another story. It rained on Christmas, and he had a partial outage to turn back on.
“Part of a display was out. That’s frustrating. Rain is the only challenge we face. I’d hate for someone to drive a long way to see the (display) and for it not to be working.”
Making people happy for the holidays and flying a plane aren’t Verzola’s only two passions. Besides managing a volleyball team, he officiates volleyball games, mostly at the middle school level. Verzola said he’s been certified to officiate by the Missouri State High School Activities Association and it’s something he wants to continue beyond college. That should be welcome news for MSHSAA, who like most state governing bodies, is having a hard time replenishing the officiating ranks with young blood.
“I want to do that for the rest of my life,” Verzola said. “There’s an excellent community and cadre of officials. It’s a great side hustle and you don’t stay in the same place constantly. I want to keep moving up. There’s a dire need for officials. Most of them are much older than me and the amount of them retiring aren’t the same coming in.”
Here’s hoping Verzola keeps the lights shining brightly at home and on the court.
By the time you read this, the holidays will be over, but the 69th Bob Sechrest Jr. Christmas Tournament in Park Hills raged until New Year’s Eve.
I’ll recap all the action from the tournament in the Jan. 9 issue of the paper. Happy New Year to all of our readers.