Organizers of one of the Bay Area’s best-known holiday lights displays have announced that they will cancel their event this season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Volunteer Adriana Yee, stands on the roof as she helps with the installation of a light display at Deacon Dave’s Christmas Display at the House of the Dove in Livermore on Dec. 3, 2019. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group) 

The dazzling display at the Livermore home of Deacon Dave Rezendes won’t be happening this year, Rezendes announced on the website for his Casa del Pomba, or “House of the Dove.”

“I am saddened to announce that this year’s 2020 Christmas Display must be cancelled,” Rezendes wrote.

The reason, he explained, is that managing the crowds on foot or in cars to see one of the biggest home displays in the United States takes a number of volunteers. Crowd control would be especially necessary with COVID-19, with volunteers tasked with making sure people, walking through the display, wore masks and practiced social distancing.

Unfortunately, many of those volunteers are older and therefore in the high-risk category for COVID-19, said Rezendes, a deacon for St. Michael Catholic Church.

“We considered having the Christmas display with closed gates with viewing from the curb,” Rezendes wrote. He also said they considered a Christmas lights display only, but both options would still require volunteer staffing and cause traffic problems.

Visitors take photos on Proposal Bridge at Deacon Dave’s Christmas Display at the House of the Dove in Livermore, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group) 

“So, in the interest of safety of our volunteer staff, visitors and neighbors, I have decided to cancel this year’s Christmas Display,” he wrote. “God willing and with the Grace of God,  I and my team of volunteers will be back next year to put on one of the Tri-Valley’s largest annual Christmas displays.”

Rezendes concluded his post by asking people to “pray for those who lost their jobs and those beloved elderly who could not see their families due to the pandemic.  We live in a challenging time.”

Deacon Dave’s light display has been an East Bay holiday tradition for more than 35 years, with more than 600,000 lights being strung around his property in 2019. The light show has been showcased on cable and international TV, and HGTV once ranked it among the biggest home displays in the United States.

Over the years, Bay Area homeowners, neighborhoods, businesses and organizations have gone to wonderfully over-the-top lengths to mount vibrant displays of holiday lights around their homes, gardens, parks and other outdoor spaces. In the coming weeks, this news organization will check in with the best-known lights displays to see which will be open this season.