ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The holiday season always brings twinkling lights, joyous decorations and the spirit of competition to one Englewood neighborhood.
This year, one house emerged victorious in a friendly rivalry for the title of "Best House," while the house across the street came away with the Legacy Award.
The Kloewer family has been decorating their Englewood home, located at 5041 S. Elati Street, for more than 25 years.
Ron Kloewer and his wife, Melanie, keep the tradition going to bring some holiday joy to the neighborhood.
“I think the reason you keep doing it is because of all the nice gestures that you get from people,” Kloewer said. “It's really neat to be able to say we're one of the very few that decorate like this.”
Across the street at 5080 S. Elati Street is the Jones household. Robert Jones moved to the neighborhood and started decorating about 10 years ago.
“We only had, like, two or three things. But then we started just getting bigger and better,” Jones said. “The more I did it, the more I liked it. The more I liked it, the bigger it got.”
The Joneses won the City of Englewood's holiday lights award for best house.
Kloewer didn’t seem too disappointed that his home didn’t get the award. Instead, he was happy for his neighbor.
“We don’t really say we’re in competition,” Kloewer said. “It’s just that much more fun for everybody.”
Despite the friendly nature of their rivalry, the reality of putting up decorations is no small feat.
“It’s the wind that kills us. The wind just does not like Christmas," Jones said.
Nightly repairs are just part of the job for both families.
“You’re constantly repairing stuff,” Jones added. “We’re out here all weekend. It’s from sunup until sundown.”
The difficulties led to a sense of camaraderie. Both families start decorating their houses after Halloween, with the goal of completing their displays by Thanksgiving evening.
“We help them out, and they help us out if we run into something that the other one can't figure out.,” Kloewer said.
Both families said their holiday displays are about more than competition. They aim to spread happiness throughout the community.
“It’s people that come every year that thank us the most,” Jones said.
“It just makes you really feel good that you’re doing that for somebody," Kloewer added.
The two families plan on leaving their decorations up through the first weekend of January.
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