JEWISH SANTA FREAK FROSTS ORTHODOX NEIGHBORS

At One Jewish Home, Making Room for Santa (NYT)
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19 — It is fair to say that in a neighborhood largely populated with Orthodox Jews, it is rather unconventional to have a life-size Santa perched on the edge of the roof of a house, attached to a microphone and bellowing, “What is this Hanukkah you speak of?”

It is particularly noteworthy that the Santa, and the elaborate Christmas display in which he rests, sits outside the home of a Jewish family, sparking the curiosity, and occasional ire, of neighbors.

“Some people are so offended, you have no idea,” said Mary Loomis-Shrier, who has long erected the giant display on a lovely street south of Hollywood. “But some of my neighbors think it is great. Some of their kids drop their list of toys in my mailbox. I don’t care because I love it, and it is my right.” ....

This is a the tale of a dozen or so Orthodox Jews, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, a cranky Israeli father, a professor of English, and Ms. Loomis-Shrier, the Jewish heiress to an exotic-lingerie fortune, all living together on a single Los Angeles block of 1920s Tudor and Spanish-style homes.