Monte Sereno Tutors

About Monte Sereno

Monte Sereno is a relatively small city; it made headline news in recent years because of some fantastically festive Christmas decorations.

No doubt intended as a puff piece, local news reported on the extraordinary attention to detail a couple of its residents had paid when decorating the exterior of their house and their yard. After interviewing the couple, Alan and Bonnie Aerts, it was established that their extravagant seasonal decorations had set the couple back upwards of $150,000. This sensational display became a neighborhood Christmas must see. Monte Sereno tutors note that in the very beginning it was neighborhood residents and school children that came to marvel at the decorations, this then grew via word of mouth to those from further afield and all of a sudden it got to the point that there was a steady ‘theme park’ like line of traffic through the neighborhood of eager spectators hoping to catch a glimpse of the highly hyped excessive Christmas themed display.

Of course initially the local residents were pretty proud of their neighborhood receiving such acclaim and notoriety for the Aerts’ efforts. However, soon the Aerts’ neighbors became much less impressed when the negative repercussions of the decorations began to directly affect them. The local residents found that there was no longer ever any street parking; this infuriated some who had become used to parking directly outside their front door. This level of interest in the neighborhood had never before been seen and residents (possibly with the exception of a party in the neighborhood) had not had to deal with parking far away from their homes. Even more frustrating for residents according to Monte Sereno tutors was simply coming and going from their homes. When neighbors had to join a line of traffic just in order to make it to their own home the attitude towards the display completely turned around. Residents once they had arrived home feared going out to the shops to pick something up, just in case it would take them a significant amount of time to get back home through the endless tourist traffic.

The protestation from the neighbors resulted in legal action being taken and the Aerts’ now had to apply for a permit in order to continue their display. The permit however would only allow the Aerts to have the display on show for 72 hours, then they would have to wait 30 days before they could apply again and resurrect their display for a further 72 hours. It was a ‘fool’s errand’, and sadly the Aerts family no longer would be able to continue their display as they had before. In retaliation to their neighbors lack of Christmas spirit the Aerts opted to erect a gigantic towering Grinch on their front lawn. They positioned it so that its out pointing arm was aimed in the direction of their miserable neighbors. The residents involved in the kerfuffle ended up appearing on a TV talk show to discuss their different sides of the story.