Winter wonderland in the tropics

The Quinata family has done it again. For the third year ina row, they’ve turned the common area in the St. Fidelis Friary into a magicalwinter wonderland, complete with snow-covered mountains, skiers, ice skaters,old-fashioned shops, Christmas trees, twinkling lights, a midnight sky, Christmascarolers, Santa Claus, and of course, Christmas trains – five of them to beexact – plus one trolley.

This labor of love is truly a family affair, starting withpatriarch Roman Quinata, who does the electrical wiring, his wife Mae, andfiltering down to their sons and spouses, Roman Jr. and Anne, Frank and Pam, JQand Donna, and daughter Terri and her husband Mike Doyle, and some of thegrandkids, too. The tradition actually started about two decades ago at theQuinata home in Ipan, and then in 2007, Fr. Eric Forbes asked them to move itto the friary.

This year, they started out in early October with directionsfrom Fr. Joe English – he wanted to be able to walk down the center of thedisplay and have the balcony used, too. So the Quinatas designed their train villageto cover both sides of the room all the way to the ceiling, with a trestlebridge over the door to the balcony connecting the two sides.

“This year we wanted the San Francisco effect,” said JQ. Bothsides are snow covered hills that zig and zag, with miniature houses, shops, agolf course, soccer field, ski jump, several performances of the Nutcrackerballet, and the five Capuchin churches on Guam: Our Lady of the BlessedSacrament in Agana Heights, St. Francis in Yona, San Miguel in Talofofo, St.Jude in Sinajana, and Santa Teresita in Mangilao, all tucked into the nooks andcrannies of the hillside.

The magic of this 1800-foot display emanates not only fromthe twinkling lights, six giant bolts of cotton that created the snow, the trains,figurines and all the Christmas symbols; it is something inherent in the careand workmanship that goes into creating this idyllic scene. Pam Quinataexplains that someone will fix the lighted crystal snowflakes into achandelier-like shape in the middle of the room, and then have to leave, andwhen they come back, someone else has taken that concept and put crystalsnowflakes at the end of the streams of dark material that symbolize the nightsky. They each build on what the others have done. “It evolves,” said Pam.

This year, Pam’s son Carlo Pangelinan and his cousin DerrickQuinata are one of the major sponsors with their used car lot Auto Traders. Pammade a miniature of their business, using dental floss and little stickers shefound to create the flags so commonly equated with car sales. It’s that type ofdetailing – tying red lights to each of the railroad ties along the front edgeof the display – that gives the display its special touch.

Many other sponsors and two other families joined in thisyear’s effort. The Quinatas refer to Rick Fegurgur as the man with the “Midastouch,” because he engineered the train, and brought back to life display itemsthat had sat broken for years – including some 20-year-old strings of lights.“That’s a bad rumor. I just fix things,” Fegurgur said. He and his wife Donnahelped out, as did the family of Julia Villagomez in Sinajana, who arranged thebeautiful Christmas dolls and Nativity display on the enclosed balcony, anddecorated the foyer of the friary.

Why do they all do it? “Heart - we do this for the church,for the community,” explained JQ. “When we see families challenged financiallyor with each other, they come here, see the display, it gives them a wholedifferent perspective… when they say, ‘Wow! How could this kind of displayhappen on Guam?’ – that’s what makes it worthwhile.”

Behind him, a family posed by the Christmas trees at one endof the display, the children’s faces beaming.

Very worthwhile indeed.

The Quinata’s “2009Christmas Around the World” is on display at the St. Fidelis Friary in AganaHeights through January 3, 2010, from 6 – 9 pm.