Beaumont, Cathedral City Homes Featured on National Christmas Lights Tour

The homes of two Southern California families have been chosen as featured stops along  Grammy® nominated singer-songwriter Judy Pancoast's "House on Christmas Street" tour-- and they're both within driving distance to Patch readers.

The first home belongs to Beaumont's own Mayor ProTem, David Castaldo.

The Castaldo Christmas Light Show, on California at 1st Street, features more than 30,000 lights, synchronized to nearly two dozen different holiday tunes.  His 14,000 square foot front yard has also been decked out with an electric train running on a 30 foot track, and giant Christmas Tree light displays.

Pancoast will head to the Castaldo home on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m., where she'll perform a free concert to the public, including her lights-display anthem "The House on Christmas Street."

Castaldo is making an event out of the night, and will set up a "VIP seating" section up front for the show, for those who donate $20 to the Beaumont Cherry Valley Rotary Club Foundation for the support of youth activities.  The Beaumont Interact Club will be on hand selling refreshments.

The address of the house is 49 California Avenue, and a portion of California will be closed for the event.

The next night, you can catch Pancoast again; this time in Cathedral City.  The singer will be performing at the Simmons Family’s Dancing Christmas Lights Show, on Friday, Nov. 30, also at 7 p.m.

The Simmons' display features 150,000 LED lights-- with an amazing 2,600 computer-controlled lighting/animation channels and eight miles of cabling.

It's located at 68000 Estio Road, between Avenida Maravilla and Vista Chino in Cathedral City – just blocks away from Minerva Road’s "Candy Cane Lane."

According to organizers: 

Highlights include a 24-foot mega tree, leaping light arches, shooting stars, dozens of strobe lights, and much more – all synchronized to a play list of holiday music hits broadcast by a short-range FM radio transmitter on 107.5 FM called the “The Icicle.” Rich Fields, a television and radio personality and former announcer for the CBS game show The Price Is Right, provides the narration. 

“Our annual Christmas lights show is the most important thing we do all year, and the hard work we put in is made worth it by the absolute joy we see every night on the faces of visitors young and old alike,” says light show creator Michael A. Simmons. “When the show first debuted in 2007, it was the Coachella Valley’s first and largest show of its kind, and in 2010, it was named 'Best Christmas Lights Display in America' by The Early Show on CBS. I am proud to say that one of the country’s largest, private residential shows of its kind is located right here in the Coachella Valley!”

Of course if you can't make it to these special concerts, you can always drive by and visit the homes through the holidays.

The Simmons show-- for which preparations began six months ago-- runs nightly through January 6, 2013 and is free to the public. Show times are Sunday through Thursday, 5-10 pm and Friday and Saturday, 5-11 pm; weather permitting. Visitors are asked to make a monetary donation to FIND Food Bank. A donation of even $1 provides seven meals for the hungry people of the Coachella Valley.

Judy Pancoast will stop at approximately two dozen homes between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The Beaumont and Cathedral City homes are the only ones in all of California to be featured along the tour, according a schedule posted online.