Visitors examine a decorated porch on 34th Street, where years of intensive and competitive Christmas decoration have created a tourist attraction in Baltimore, December 15, 2003. |
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 Each evening, around Christmas time, hundreds of people are heading toward Baltimore's neighborhood of Hampden to see the renowned "Miracle on 34th Street, ”. Intensive and competitive Christmas decoration have created a tourist attraction that continues each evening from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. until a few days past the new year.
 No one could agree on when the holiday tradition began, but residents say that they have been decorating their houses for as long as they can remember. Every year the display is a bit different and bigger, with ever improving collections. Amassed holiday decorations can take days, even weeks, to organize and assemble. The porch roofs and yards of many houses are still works in progress. It usually starts the first weekend of November.
A procession of people stream through, on foot, during the early evening hours climbing extravagantly decorated porches. This is a place where the secular meets the sacred. Glowing plastic Santas; gingerbread men; lighted candy canes; strings of glittering globes on roofs, porticos and yards; model trains; inflatable Snowmen; and Grinches are in the shadow of one tree built entirely from car hub-cups and designed by artist Jim Pollock, in front of his "Little Gallery That Could."
Somehow, year after year, season after season, the 700 block of West 34th Street manages to bring back joy. This collection of neighbors with their different backgrounds and typical disagreements come together to share their holiday joy with thousands of strangers who've traveled a few blocks or across oceans. When new residents move onto the block, including a physical therapist, a police officer and a graduate student, and are excited at the prospect of bringing cheer to thousands more during the holiday, the tradition continues. Only one reason motivates residents of this unusual housing block, and they all agree on this - it's the smiles from the crowds that make it all worth their while.
For more info visit 34th Street
Official Web Site |
