OK, this entry isn't about potholes or road  work, but just like some of those easy listening radio stations, The Tri-City Drive blog is expanding its regular format for Christmas.

As many of you know,  The Argus prints directions to some of the best-decorated homes in the Tri-City area, and this year I was picked to drive from Union City to Warm Springs making sure our old standards were still decking their lawns with Santas, snowmen, plywood penguins or anything else that might give people a warm and fuzzy holiday feeling. 

Here's some of the best stuff I saw:

This toy soldier is just one of more than a dozen mechanical
plywood decorations at La Purissima Place in Fremont.
The best thing about the soldier are his eyes. They move.
Compare the above picture with the one below.

Over on Glencoe Drive, one family celebrates
the season with dioramas.

It's all about the details. Check out another
picture of the same diorama. If you look closely,
you'll notice that the raccoon playing on the teeter-totter
with the skunk has a clothes pin on its nose. Too cute!
 

Same house, here's a polar bear-fronted band
that plays Christmas carols, followed by a Ferris
wheel with SpongeBob SquarePants along for the ride

On my way to Glencoe, I passed by this inflatable
Nativity scene, which I thought was pretty neat.
 
I know it's a little dark, but Joseph is totally huge.
I thought he looked like Paul Bunyan.
A friend said he looked more like a Tzar.

 From Glencoe, I headed to "Crippsmas Place."
Cripps Place traditionally had some of the best
decorations in Fremont.  I'm told some of the
neighboring streets now carry on the tradition.
So while Cripps might not have as many decorations
as it once did, there's some neat stuff there and one block
over on Wellington Place.

Those lips are so red!!

A lot of the decorations on Wellington were
based on Disney films and this one
was based on a corporate mascot:
 

I didn't see too many things on Cripps, but
I arrived right around 10 p.m. when they close down.
If you don't think they're serious about closing time,
check out these shots:

9:59 p.m.

10 p.m.

For Penguin displays, go to Reeder Court in Fremont

The neighbors have penguins too.

Here's a picture of the famed American flag
roof on Clover Street in Union City:

And here's one in Newark on Blackwood Drive:

I like how the Nativity scene is inside the "O".

There is another great house in Union City on Colgate,
but the lights there were all out when I showed up close to
11 p.m. I also didn't go to the Southlake Mobile Home Park or
Espada Court in Fremont, because other people confirmed
they were still there. If you have pictures of those or other
great homes, feel free to e-mail them to me at
martz@bayareanewsgroup.com.
We'll print a full list with addresses and directions in The Arugus.