PALOS HILLS, IL — In true Clark Griswold-style, 187 blow molds and thousands of twinkling lights will be flicked on at the “House On Broadmoor,” 10357 Broadmoor Drive, Palos Hills. Please join the Piersma-Beck family at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 4. Mayor Jerry Bennett will be doing the honorary plugging in of the lights.
Mark Piersma has lived in the House on Broadmoor his entire life and started the tradition of decorating the exterior of the home with his dad in the early 1990s, which quickly earned the reputation as the brightest on the block during the holiday season. Each year, they kept adding more stuff, before Piersma took it to a new level. Injection Mold Parts Factory
“He literally has just moved from bedroom to bedroom,” Piersma’s wife, Elizabeth Beck, told Patch. “Our daughters took their first steps where he took his first steps.”
This year, the Piersma-Beck family is requesting that visitors to their majestic light display bring a new toy or non-perishable food item. Food will be donated to Elsie’s Pantry, a joint ministry of Savior Divine Lutheran Church and Living Faith Community Church. Toys will be distributed to local youngsters by the Hickory/Palos Hills Sertoma Club.
Over 5,000 twinkling Christmas lights deck the live tree inside the window. On the roof is another live tree, purchased from the Palos Lions Club tree lot, giving the illusion of a Christmas tree bursting through the roof.
“We keep the tree up in the house until it’s dead,” Beck said. “Sometimes it lasts until the Super Bowl.”
But the true show is the massive collection of vintage and contemporary plastic blow molds spread across the House on Broadmoor’s front lawn – Santa, Mrs. Claus (she really needs a first name), snowmen, choir boys, Nativity figures, gingerbread people, candy candy canes and much, much more.
“The first 90 blow molds are from when he was a child,” Beck said. “My husband loves them. People give him blow molds for his birthday. If he sees one on the curb with the trash, he grabs it.”
It takes two weeks for Mark and Elizabeth (they had us at “plastic blow mold”) to pull all the figurines out of their crawl space, and another two weeks to arrange everything on their front lawn.
“My husband is definitely the Clark Griswold of Broadmoor,” Beck said. “He’s done a few dress rehearsals, making sure everything works, but the official lighting is tonight [Monday, Dec. 4].”
The Piersma-Beck family and friends will be pouring out the hot cocoa, coffee and sweets next door at the neighbors. Food and supplies have been donated by Peppos Subs, Valley Inn Restaurant, Palos Tobacco & Liquor, Palos Diner and Avalon Restaurant.
The boxes for toys and food items will be outside on the front lawn through Dec. 20, or consider a monetary or gift card donation to the Hickory/Palos Hills Sertoma. Going forward, the lights will be on from 5 to 10 p.m., maybe a little later on weekends, throughout the holiday season.
If you live in the neighborhood, consider walking. Palos Hills police will be directing traffic, but please be nice when parking in the neighborhood and don’t be blocking anyone’s driveway. Palos Patch will be broadcasting the momentous lighting on the Palos Patch Facebook page.
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