Tony and Heather Campbell create Christmas spectacular despite busy schedules

Tony and Heather Campbell must have a touch of Santa’s magic this time of the year. There is no other way such busy people could create such a bright light extravaganza as they have fashioned at their Petaluma home.

Words cannot even begin to describe the Christmas spectacular of lights, themed cutouts and hidden surprises. The accompanying picture offers a glimpse of what can only be appreciated by a visit to the home located at Wallenberg Way and Sunnyslope Avenue.

The real miracle is that the production is the result of the efforts of two of the busiest people on planet Petaluma.

Heather Campbell is a full-time teacher at Casa Grande High School, teaching kinesiology, one of the most popular classes in the school. She is also one of the best-known persons in the area high-school sports world, serving as sports trainer for all Casa Grande High School sporting events as well as for St. Vincent football. The Friday before the lights went on at her home, she was in the Sierras in Jackson taking care of St. Vincent football players in the California Interscholastic Federation Northern California championship game.

When Casa Grande or St. Vincent athletes are hurting, the first person they look to is “Mrs. Campbell.”

Husband, Tony Campbell, is a UPS supervisor who, during the holiday season, works 60 hours per week. He also takes photographs for Casa Grande and St. Vincent football players.

Still, they find time to turn their house, originally the home of Heather’s parents, the late, legendary Casa Grande basketball coach Ed Iacopi and wife, Peggy, into a holiday must see. Peggy still lives in the home.

It all began about 20 years ago when 3-year-old son AJ, looking around at the neighbors’ homes, wondered, “Daddy, why don’t we have lights?”

Like a good parent, Tony rushed to K-Mart and hung the first of the Campbell home directions in a driving rain storm.

AJ got his lights. This year he has 600,000.

Those lights are the responsibility of Heather who skillfully places them on the house, the side fence and seemingly on every square inch of the yard. The only place she doesn’t cover is the roof. “Tony won’t let me go up there,” she said. “I would if he would let me.” The roof is covered, completely, by son, Alex and his cousin Austin Balke.

“I love doing it,” said Heather. “It’s therapeutic. The only time it gets hard is in the last four or five hours. Then I just want to get finished.”

The cutouts are Tony’s responsibility. It started with a Santa Claus. There are now 47 cutouts, including a sleigh large enough for visitors to sit and have their pictures taken. He uses patterns, assembles the reindeer, elves and other almost life-sized decorations and painstakingly paints each one. New this year is a nativity scene.

“It just kind of grew one piece at a time,” he said.

There is a predominance of red, white and blue lighting.

“I thought it would be nice to have a patriotic theme,” explained Heather.

This year, for the first time, a live Santa is on hand to greet visitors. His hours vary greatly, depending on his day job with UPS.

This winter is bittersweet for Tony. He loves being Santa Claus and seeing the happy faces of the kids, but his mother passed away a year and a half ago and this will be the first Campbell Christmas extravaganza she has missed since the beginning.

The Campbells have a donation box, but use none of the contribution money to defray their own costs. They pay for everything from paint to power.

All donations go to Una Vida, a grassroots nonprofit headed up by Heather’s friend and fellow teacher at Casa Grande, Lynne Moquette. Una Vida works with community leaders, public educators and other non-profits to identify persons in need and connect them to resources.

The organization also has close ties to the Dominican Republic and works with organizations in that country to better the lives of Dominican families.