The Holiday Shopping Guide

The Shining
If all else fails, rekindle the holiday spirit by taking a hint from a guy who just wants to help Boston—all of Boston—lighten up.

Jamaica Plain’s Dominic Luberto is a man who will let nothing—neither snow nor protesting neighbors nor municipal ordinances—dampen his holiday spirit. And while you might not appreciate that quality if you live next door, what with some 500,000 lights blazing on his castlelike home from 4:30 p.m. till 11:45 p.m., October through January, you have to applaud his dedication to spreading good cheer as far as he possibly can. (The Guinness people have already called.) For three years, Luberto has treated the stringing of lights as a temporary full-time job for himself and his two-man crew, and paid out nearly $2,000 a month to NStar, which last year added a new transformer to accommodate the extra load. In 2006, he told a reporter, “I do it for the kids. I enjoy it so much that I keep going. I never stop.”

This year, Luberto is topping his half-million-light spectacle with a 10-foot-high, 650-pound gold-painted crown that took him 46 days to construct. Inspectors say this sort of thing requires a permit. Residents of surrounding houses say he’s completely bananas. “I’m living next to Vegas,” one has said. “My dogs won’t walk past it,” says another. But Luberto, undaunted, has time for neither red tape nor naysayers—“grinches!” he calls them. At press time, he still had 360,000 lights to install and only 42 days to do it (which is why you’re looking at last year’s pre-crown incarnation). “I don’t rest,” he says. Nor, it would seem, will most of J.P., at least not until 2008. Happy holidays! —Alyssa Giacobbe