Norman Borne’s handmade Kenilworth Christmas display

It started with 100 candy canes.

Or, no, perhaps it started with Norman Borne’s childhood. Christmas was never a priority for his parents. Growing up poor in St. James Parish, he remembers fondly how his uncle’s house was always decked out, while his home remained relatively bare. He vowed his kids would experience Christmas to the fullest. And for nearly 30 years now, he’s been making good on that promise.

Walking onto the front lawn of Borne’s Kenilworth home in the month of December is like stumbling across the North Pole come south. Dozens of displays of elves and Santas, busily at work making toys, climbing down chimneys and riding in sleighs dot the lawn in brightly lit dioramas. Penguins, reindeer and even a jolly Christmas train populate the winter wonderland on Stoneleigh Drive.

A CPA for Notoco Technologies, Borne spends all day working with numbers. He can tell you how many lights he has strung up (more than 10,000), how much his electricity bill goes up for the month of December ($30) and how many weekends it takes him to put the gigantic display up (two). But the handmade wooden cutouts, the centerpieces of his yearly holiday decorating extravaganza, are a different story. “I couldn’t tell you how many I have,” he admits. “I’m always making more.”

The tradition started in 1980, with the aforementioned 100 candy canes and a Santa cutout, lining his lawn and starting what would become a neighborhood attraction. “The first year I did it, a lot of kids snatched the decorations,” he says with a laugh. “Neighbors were returning candy canes for weeks. I became known as the candy cane guy.” Undeterred, Borne expanded his décor the next year to include elves, then reindeer, snowmen and other familiar holiday characters. Soon, neighbors were asking when he’d be putting up his display.

Borne spends time in his garage each year making new cutouts, to replace the ones worn by weather, hungry squirrels and careless onlookers, and to create new scenes. His three grown children, Eric, Melissa and Michelle, and his wife, Lucille, often help him paint. He’s also added features to make the yard more fun for the neighborhood, such as a life-sized sleigh for family photo ops. “You’d be surprised how many people stop and take pictures in it,” he says.