Decorations DITTO all over again

Fans of the elaborate Christmas light decorations in the Rancho El Dorado neighborhood – and the famous “DITTO” house next door – can look forward to an even more extravagant display this holiday season.

Eric Cyr, the owner of the home, is adding to the selection of homemade decorations he typically puts up. The decorations have been growing since 2009, the first year he went “extreme,” as his wife Stacey likes to say.

“I’m sure (kids are) going to be elated with the decorations,” Eric Cyr said. “We usually get a lot of newcomers so they haven’t seen it before.”

Cyr designed and created all the decorations at his home by hand, including Rudolph and a sleigh, Santa going into the chimney, an 8-foot nutcracker, and this year, a six-piece, 20-foot long train set. The train will have an elf in the caboose and presents in the cars.

Cyr makes all of the decorations out of wood, free handing the shape and then cutting it out. He drills holes to individually place lights through the back. Then he spray paints it, puts the lights in and staples them from behind.

But he’s still not done.

Then Cyr checks and swamps each of the bulbs to make sure certain colored lights are placed appropriately. Then, ta-da! The decorations are complete.

All of that takes a lot of work. For his latest addition, the train set, Cyr estimated drawing the designs and cutting the wood took about eight hours. It took two to four hours to drill the holes, five to eight hours to paint each piece and one hour a piece to put the wires in.

Cyr said he’s always been handy, so knowing how to make the decorations comes somewhat naturally.

“I’ve always had a theory: It’s not broke until I can’t fix it,” he said. “I like to know a little bit about everything.”

Cyr, his family and their next-door neighbors gained worldwide recognition last year after Cyr made a lighted-up sign that read “DITTO” with an arrow and placed it at a neighbor’s house.

The Associated Press ran a story about the “DITTO” sign, and soon everyone was talking about it. Big names like Jimmy Kimmel, Martha Stewart and Diane Sawyer talked about the “DITTO” sign on their shows. And in September, the sign was featured in a book, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Dare to Look!

Stacey said people recognize her or her husband when they go to the store.

“I get a lot of people who say, ‘Oh that’s right. You’re the DITTO house,” she said.