HV's North Pole Airport Competes On 'The Great Christmas Light Fight'

NEW CITY, NY — Eight years ago, the Cirlin family thought it would be cool to amp up their simple outdoor Christmas display with a theme, and the North Pole Airport was created with a small runway of lights and a single inflatable of the Snoopy Red Baron.

In two weeks, the exuberant extravaganza that has evolved on Oriole Road will be one of the contestants on The Great Christmas Light Fight, which starts its 11th season on ABC Nov. 26.

"That’s the show that got us going," Gary Cirlin told Patch. "To be on it — I still can’t believe it."

The New City resident has been pinching himself for two years, because that's when casting agents first reached out.

"It was incredible," he said. "Just the initial application — I haven’t seen that level of application since I applied to college. We had to film hours of footage the last week of the 2021 season, narrate how it worked and do behind-the-scene family interviews."

In April 2022, they were informed they had made the first cut. That meant another round of interviews.

"So in the middle of my work day we decorated the dining room and dressed up in costumes," Cirlin said. "The UPS man came to the door in the middle of it — he must have thought we were nuts."

They weren’t going to find out if they were going to be filmed for the 2022 season's contest until September last year.

"We couldn’t wait — we made the decision to go for it," he said. "All summer I was planning, designing, building — for example, the 14-foot cargo plane that is sticking out of the side of my house. Things on the list to be repaired got repaired. I took a month off from work to make sure it was all done."

"The worst part was we couldn't tell anybody. No one in our neighborhood knew," he said. "So while we usually start in September and finish by Thanksgiving, here it was August and there I was setting up for Christmas. We told people I had a busy travel schedule for work. The film date was the beginning of November.

"It wasn’t until about a week and a half before that our neighbors got letters that there were going to be street closures. Then they put two and two together and got really excited."

The season premiere of The Great Christmas Light Fight is 10 p.m. Nov. 26 on ABC, with a greatest hits episode. The North Pole Airport episode will air at 10 p.m. Dec. 3.

"We're very happy about that, because the earlier in the season we air, the more we collect for the charities," Cirlin said.

The Cirlins use the display every year to help two organizations — Angel Flight and People to People of Rockland. Angel Flight North East is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c) charitable organization that provides free air transportation so that children and adults may access life-saving medical care, and People to People of Rockland has the county's largest food pantry.

"We know that it is a competition, and we knew going in that whatever the outcome for us, the charities will benefit big-time because of the exposure. That’s the gift," Cirlin said. "Everyone’s going to see us on TV and they’re going to want to experience it."

The North Pole Airport has collected so much money for Angel Flight over the past eight years — more than $100,000 — that the Cirlins were honorees at the charity's gala this fall.

They collect for Angle Flight via cash donation drop boxes at each of the controls for the animatronics as well as signs around the display with QR codes for venmo and cashless donation options.

Plus, they ask drive-by visitors to bring non-perishable food items to donate. For the past couple of years they've collected about 3,000 pounds of food for P2P, even during the pandemic. SEE: Community's Generosity Overwhelms North Pole Airport Family

The show will air over the course of four weeks varying between Sunday and Tuesday nights. Timing varies week to week. All episodes will be available next day on Hulu.

On Dec. 3, the Cirlins are planning a viewing party and you’re invited to watch along with them.

• Where: The Place in New City
• Time: About 9:30 p.m. as the show airs at 10 p.m.
• Pay for your own food/drink. They will be collecting donations for Angel Flight and non-perishable food items for People To People.

Opening night at the house is a week earlier — 7 p.m. Nov. 24.

Check the Facebook page for the most up-to-date show times as they do change. There is a static show at 5 p.m. on show nights with few blinking lights, to accommodate anyone with sensory conditions. Also check the Facebook page for when reservations open for the simulator.

Some things will be different than they were in 2022, for example, no 20-foot Santa on the roof. He was too high-maintenance. Instead, the entire roof has been covered with almost 5,000 lights. (The display only had a total of 9,000 lights in 2017.)

There's the Very Important Elf Lounge. There's a simulator where visitors can fly Santa's sleigh. There's also a new animatronic elf doing a bit of emergency welding. That was Cirlin's 10-year-old son's idea after Cirlin went and got his welding certificate a couple of years ago.

"The hood is up, and there’s an elf whose arm going in, and you see sparks and a puff of smoke," Cirlin said. "Happens every 15-20 seconds."

A new feature connected to the Control Tower allows you to listen to chit-chat back and forth between elf air controllers. A friend of Cirlin's who’s an air traffic controller got friends to help write a script, then another friend who’s an actor got friends to perform it.

"Talented people and accurate lingo plus a few Easter eggs people will have to listen for," Cirlin said.

Here are three photos to show you just how much the North Pole Airport has changed over the years with parts Cirlin has found, received, bought or built, with the help of family and many friends for whom he is very thankful.

"We’re doing the same thing we do every year, to a much bigger audience. It’s about spreading joy and collecting for charity," he said. "We’re going to have to buy more candy canes."