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I'm in Mu Alpha Theta(Florida) as well. We usually meet every Friday to practice and stuff. I'm also taking the AMC test Feb 12, and have done FML in the past.
The holidays begin at home
The Clot Family Christmas Display
Back in the 1960s, Miami-area resident and holiday aficionado William Clot lived not far from a famous Christmas display in Coral Gables, FL.
Clot already decorated his front yard, mostly for family. But during the late ’60s, the man in Coral Gables stopped putting up his yearly display. Clot decided someone had to carry on.
Each year, Clot would add a bit more to his display. Now, his son Josh Clot says the 1-1/2 acre Clot Family Christmas Display includes more than 100 animated figures and more than 650,000 lights – more than some cities use.
“Christmas was always a big thing for him when he was growing up, a big tradition in his family,” said Josh Clot, who fields calls about his father’s display. “He kind of wanted to carry that on.”
At first, William Clot decorated with the relatively piddling number of 25,000 or so lights.
“The year that he (the Coral Gables man) stopped doing it, my dad went and bought a whole bunch of stuff that went around the corner of his house which could be seen from the busier street that’s nearby, which is 120th Street,” Josh Clot said.
“The people started coming by. He just started building from there.”
William Clot started to add other elements, including animated figures from department store displays. The display got some additional muscle in the form of pure wattage. Most holiday decorations, even city or large corporate displays, use 1/10-watt bulbs, Josh Clot said. But 150,000 of the bulbs used in the Clot display are 7-watt bulbs. And the number of visitors has become staggering.
“It’s really overwhelming now,” Josh Clot said. His father “can literally say he has spoken to millions of people in his back yard. Last year, we gave out 60,000 candy canes to children.”
Josh isn’t sure if it can be seen from space, but he does know it can be seen from a pretty good altitude, and up to 10 miles away – he has seen it himself, from a helicopter.
“Some people have summer homes, some people have boats. He doesn’t have any of that; he’s got Christmas stuff,” Josh Clot said. “And it’s done in a way that you won’t see anywhere else.”
The family’s holiday tradition won the first Today Show award for best privately owned display in the country.
For the past decade, money placed in the two donation boxes at the display has been donated to the Woman’s Cancer Association, an association that raises funds for cancer research for the University of Miami. Josh Clot said more than $400,000 had been raised.
The Clot Family Christmas Display is open from sunset to 11 p.m. weeknights, and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays from Thanksgiving through Jan. 1. Admission is free.
The display is in the Pinecrest section of Miami. Sgt. Bruce Fisher with the Florida DOT motor carrier enforcement unit suggests this route: Take U.S. 1, aka the Old Dixie Highway, to Ludlum Road Exit. Go south on Ludlum, which is also called 67th Street, to Southwest 120th Street. Park and walk two blocks west on 120th Street to Southwest 68th Court, which is where the display is.
Bobtails are preferred – Josh Clot said they should have no trouble driving to the display. Although it is a strictly residential area, street parking is available along Ludlum Road, and that bobtails should be able to park in the area.
In addition, trucks have delivered into the area on numerous occasions.
Be on the watch for “no trucks” signs – although Fisher says this route avoids them.
“Trucking plays a pretty important part in all of this. All of the cases of lights we receive are delivered by truck,” he said.
Contact the Clot family by e-mail at northpole@clotxmas.com for additional information.
