Abundance of Christmas cheer

Bob and Marcy Cook go overboard with their teddy bear decorations.During the holidays, the Balboa Island home of Bob and Marcy Cook is about as warm and inviting as it gets. Holiday decorations overflow inside and out. The focus of all the trimmings is the couple’s extensive collection of Christmas teddy bears, which fill the windows and cover nearly every inch of open space.

With a perfect bay-front location, the Cooks extend the holiday spirit and throw a party nearly every night of the Newport Beach Boat Parade.

And yet they can’t even offer their guests a hot cup of coffee.

They’d like to, but with all the electrically animated bears and other Christmas decorations, the circuit breaker simply can’t handle it.

For the Cooks, the lack of available current -- and the soaring electricity bill -- is a small sacrifice.

They love their bears.

“When people think we’ve got bears, we’ve really got bears,” said Marcy Cook.

Cook estimates they have more than 2,500 Christmas bears that come out every year, just for the holidays. The bears, along with other Christmas decorations, are kept in 250 boxes in off-site storage. It takes eight full days, working from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., to set up the bears and other decorations, Cook said.

And that’s just inside the house.

Another five days of labor is what’s required to get the outside of the house completely decorated. Marcy Cook, a math teacher, blocks off time in her schedule specifically to decorate for the holidays.

According to her husband, Marcy Cook does most of the work.

“I just bring the boxes, fold the boxes. When they’re empty I bring them back to storage,” said Bob Cook.

Her husband is a “good sport” when it comes to her hobby, Marcy Cook said. She’s been collecting bears for more than 12 years. She either buys them herself or receives them as gifts.

“Whenever I’m out and about, I’m just always on the lookout,” Marcy Cook said. “I find them everywhere.”

The view from the boardwalk outside the Cooks’ home treats onlookers to an impressive display of Christmas decorations. Teddy bears of every kind peek out from the windows. A nearly life-size Santa Claus that sings and dances is positioned in front a sliding glass door for all to see.

“I think it’s fabulous, it’s just so decorated,” said Lido Isle resident Barbara Berrien.

Berrien said she always makes a point to walk by the Cooks’ house during the holidays.

“It is really bear-y,” Berrien said. “It really does do the theme justice.”

The view from outside isn’t the half of it.

Inside, holly boughs hang from the ceiling and, at the push of a button, a chorus of singing and speaking decorations fill the air with verbal Christmas cheer.

There are snowmen that sing and Santas that ski across the kitchen floor. And bears, lots and lots of bears. Ceramic bears, cuddly bears and even one bear that reads “The Night Before Christmas” aloud.

“We had to drop people from our party list because we were looking around thinking, we can’t fit them in here,” Marcy Cook said.

The Cooks are regular competitors -- and winners -- in the annual Ring of Lights holiday decoration competition.

“They just basically win because of their extreme positive image that they portray and kind of the childlike fantasy of Christmas,” said Duncan Forgey, chairman of the Ring of Lights.

The Ring of Lights coincides with the annual Newport Beach Boat Parade, held this year Dec. 14 to Dec. 18. A committee of judges gives awards to decorated homes in a range of categories including most traditional and animation.

“It’s Balboa Island that really, really gets together as a community and gets really competitive,” Forgey said.

The competition in the winners circle is intense, Forgey said. There are a group of 10 to 12 homes that win an award almost every year, Forgey said.

The Cooks estimate they have won about eight awards in different categories of the Ring of Lights competition. And when the judging takes place this Monday, they could win again.

Winners receive a professional photograph of their home, a commemorative plaque and an invitation to an awards banquet.

The Cooks have several plaques hanging throughout their home, and though the award is nice, that’s not their motive.

“She doesn’t do this for” the award,” Bob Cook said.

They just love the bears.20051209ir7hzsknDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Bob Cook admires a collection of Teddy Bears, part of 2,500 he and his wife Marcy put in their windows on Balboa Island.