He drives around Colton and most people have already seen him in the Ho Ho parade in San Bernardino. 53 year old Juan Gutierrez drives his Christmas light decorated Ford Expedition everywhere he goes. He has been decorating his car for going on 10 years now. He will typically begin decorating it at the beginning of December and keep the lights on until the first few weeks of January.
When he first started decorating his car he started with a Toyota Landcruiser and just a few lights. This car consisted of the few lights and a small crown placed on the front of the car as a tester. As the years have passed he has become more technically adept and added hundreds and hundreds of more lights. This year he has an amazing 2000 lights decorating his large Expedition.
His car displays the 2000 lights and is powered by two power converters that he has on the inside of his Expedition. Along with the 2 converters he keeps a spare one, should one of the other two go out at any given time.
Since his Expedition is his primary car you can see Gutierrez driving the streets and freeways of Colton at any time. When asked why he started decorating his car like this, he simply replied, “I just wanted to try it out.” However, ever since the first time, Gutierrez says that he loved seeing the smile it brought to people’s faces because of it and has continued to do so.
Gutierrez says the decorating typically takes at least 50 hours or 1 week to install. Due to a recent back surgery it immensely slowed down his installation time. However, with the help of his assistants Karla and Maria they are able to install them in enough time to spread the holiday cheer around Colton.
He was seen in the San Bernardino Ho Ho parade two years ago with his decorated car. He wanted to participate last year, but due to technical issues, he was unable to. However, this year he was ready. He made sure there would be no issues and was able to proudly display his lights for Christmas time.