It wouldn’t be Christmas without the `Griswold house’ in Glens Falls

Paul Smith’s wondrous world on Clayton Avenue is back

By Ken Tingley

This is a Christmas story, a Glens Falls Christmas story.

It’s the extraordinary tale of a man with a very ordinary name - Paul Smith - who continues to delight and dazzle those who find their way down Clayton Avenue every Christmas season.

Some called it the “Griswold House” in honor of the crazily obsessed Chevy Chase character in the “Christmas Vacation” movie, but that certainly does not fit the description of Paul. If there is a calamity associated with  him and his mission, it is the darkness since Covid struck three years ago.

That just wasn’t right. The lights are on again this year.

From the 55-foot tower with 14,000 lights, to Santa’s roof-top sleigh that originated with Charlie Wood, to the delightful Christmas village that fills his garage and an airborne helicopter that was on the fritz this week, it is ground zero for Christmas in Glens Falls.

Paul is telling the story now when a car pulls up.

Paul Smith has been dazzling Glens Falls residents for 35 years with his decorations on Clayton Avenue.

It’s not even noon yet, the lights are dark and the woman says she wanted to swing by because she works nights and she loves looking at all the decorations.

She says she might be late to work one of these nights so she can see everything.

“That happens all the time,” says Paul. “People just drive up.”

Most years, it is not unusual to see a line of cars crawling down sleepy Clayton Avenue until they finally stop in awe of what lies before them. Ultimately, you have to get out of the car to see if it is all real.

You have to tour the grounds.

And you are humbled.

On the other side of Clayton Avenue is the Glens Falls High football field. When they installed lights this past year, it wasn’t really a big deal because Paul has been lighting up the night for years.

Paul Smith is 68 now and a car accident two decades ago robbed him of the ability to tell the story in a direct linear line. Each story, each attraction - they are not really decorations - outside his home is a story with subplots where characters are introduced donating their time and own decorations until you have what dazzles us today. It’s obvious, this is a community project in many ways.

Like so many things in life, it happened gradually, then all at once.

At some point, the lights became such an attraction that people stopped and emerged from their cars even on the coldest, snowy nights. It wasn’t Christmas until you visited Clayton Avenue to see the “Griswold house.”

Paul Smith grew up in that house on Clayton Avenue - I don’t have to give you an address number because you will find it easy enough - when he returned to his hometown in the late 1980s and took a job Mahoney Notify for 18 years.

There is a large picture window in the kitchen that looks out on the front yard and it was there that Paul could spy the people beholding the wonder he had created.

“We figured that since they were getting out of the car, let’s give them something to do,” Paul said.

The little red shed was the very first attraction.

That  first attraction was a little shed-sized building with a Santa’s workshop inside. Since Paul’s dad was involved with Kiwanis, they added a place - surrounded by lights of course - for people to donate canned goods for those in need. He says they will receive close to 500 pounds in canned goods this holiday season.

But let’s stop here for a second and clarify that Paul is not just a guy draping lights over a building. What he often does is restore what has been broken and bring scores of decorations back to life. Paul’s workshop is the Christmas miracle. He is a Mr. Fix-it worthy of a high-ranking position at the North Pole.

The display measures some 38 feet and takes up almost all of Paul Smith’s side yard after nearly five years of restoring the toy maker figures.

Paul’s latest addition this year is a 38-foot long trailer that houses moving figures that originated in Germany in the 1950s. It found its way to a Christmas park in Albion, N.Y., then to Jack Gillette’s Magic Forest in Lake George where it faded away while in storage. When Magic Forest was sold, Gillette gave it to Paul. For five years, Paul has gradually, tediously brought it back to life, replacing motors, restoring the figures, and he says he still has another year’s worth of work to get it right.

And that’s just the latest story.

The life-sized manger scene was originally at Magic Forest in Lake George.

Gillette displayed a life-sized manger scene at Magic Forest for years, then offered it up to Paul during the holidays. For four years, they hauled the figures back and forth between the two places. Finally, Gillette just let Paul have it. It’s really where it belonged. They now have a new home behind Paul’s house.

The chimney is the original, but Paul Smith had to restore most of Charlie’s Wood’s original sleigh and reindeer.

The Santa and sleigh that is on the roof was given to him by Charlie Wood. The amusement park owner was originally friends with his father, but after the sleight stopped working, he gave it to Paul.

It is a theme repeated over and over. Paul’s house is like the land of misfit toys where he brings holiday displays back to life.

A local construction company allowed him use of a lift to get his lights up high, but admitted that it didn’t work very well in the cold. So Paul fixed that, too.

There was a vacation to Florida where Paul stumbled on a company that made the wire frames for the Christmas figures, including the helicopter that eventually made it onto the roof. That one came back on the roof of his car - all the way from Florida.

The Christmas Village in the garage needed cleaned and retired but Paul was no longer nimble enough to get in there and do the work so his friend Dick Leland offered up his granddaughter to get the job done.

When he needed some figures painted a woman who ran an art studio offered her students up to help with the creative work Paul couldn’t do.

That’s another part of the miracle.

This isn’t just Paul’s baby, this has turned into a community project, literally, at times.

After the car accident in 2003, Paul knew he couldn’t get the lights up. He just wasn’t up to it. Word got out and The Post-Star ran a story that the “Griswold house” was going dark because of Paul’s accident.

Once people read that, another Christmas miracle happened.

Paul’s wife Pamela was working at the Harrison Avenue Elementary School in South Glens Falls and when people there heard about Paul’s plight, they rallied around him and over two weekends got the everything up under Paul’s direction.

Maybe that’s the ultimate miracle, that community spirit.

Paul says he has more ideas for years to come and while so many people know about his house, he says he is often surprised so many have not heard about Clayton Avenue and the wondrous world he has created.

Finally, I ask him what happens to it all when he is gone and there is a quiet.

“I don’t know,” he finally says.

For now, for this Christmas, there will again be a traffic jam on Clayton Avenue.

And Paul will be out there on the lawn - as long as he can stand the cold - talking with the people and watching the young ones in awe , well, everything.

“That’s the best part, talking to the people,” said Paul.

So spread the word.

The Griswold House is back and it is a wonder to behold.

Ken Tingley is the retired editor of The Post-Star and his latest book is a collection of columns called “The Last American Editor, Vol. 2.”