Falmouth House Closes Christmas Display

It is Christmastime on Falmouth Street, and for one house the lights may be off, but somebody is home. And that somebody is mad.

“Prairie Village hates Christmas,” Mike Babick, owner of Falmouth’s ‘Christmas House,’ said. “That’s the way I feel and that’s the way I see it.”

For the first time in 47 years, Babick will no longer be constructing his usual elaborate Christmas decoration display. For the first time in 47 years, Babick will no longer stand outside his home every evening surveying his work, and chatting with the viewers of his display. For the first time in 47 years, the one way street will be a little quieter, a little less trafficked and a little darker.

The light and animatronic Christmas display complete with scenes from the Nativity, Santa’s Workshop and the North Pole was once visited by hundreds of people every night, typically from late November to early January. In recent years the holiday house’s display increased. As the house grew in popularity, the Prairie Village City Council Members, the Prairie Village Police Department and the Babick’s neighbors saw the street as a growing risk.

“We had people crossing there, and kids running in and out between cars,” Prairie Village Police Chief Wes Jordan said. “That whole combination is a recipe for disaster.”

Two Prairie Village City Council members, Michael Kelly and Andrew Wang, worked with the police department helping to create an ordinance for special events like Babick’s Christmas display, and other displays that could cause potential problems and be dangerous to citizens attending.

“The ordinance has to do with impacting the flow of traffic, especially as it relates to emergency vehicles and people exiting their vehicles,” Councilman Michael Kelly said. “If somebody thinks their holiday event is going to do that, then I would recommend that they explain their event to city council staff members to see if it would require a permit.”

According to the Neighborhood Special Event Ordinance, Babick’s ‘special event’ did require a permit. A special event is categorized as “temporary outdoor use of private property,” which is “likely to generate crowds,” and is “likely to create a condition in which the police department is required to protect the public welfare.”

When the ordinance was passed with a 10-2 vote by the Prairie Village City Council in September, Babick knew that a permit would eventually have to be issued for him to continue operating his display. All expenses that were beyond the police department’s regular duties, such as traffic signage and overtime hours had to be paid for. Babick believes this ordinance was sanctioned against himself and his lights display personally.

“This would have been our 48th year, it is so sad that I couldn’t do it, but we have the city to thank for that,” Babick said. “They must hate either me or Christmas. I haven’t figured that one out yet.”

The Prairie Village Police Department says that according to the criteria listed in the ordinance, Babick’s house does impede normal traffic regulations, because of all the visitors it would attract each night. This caused it to be unsafe for pedestrians as well as not navigable for emergency vehicles.

“Our biggest concern out of all of this, is when we got a complaint that an ambulance couldn’t get down the street,” Chief Jordan said. “We realized we had a shortfall in our ability to keep [the situation] safe.”

Babick disputes the police department’s argument that the street is impassable for emergency vehicles. He conducted an experiment  in 1974 where cars had been parked along both sides of the road, he then had both a fire truck and medic truck successfully pass through the street. Babick claims that his display and the traffic that comes along with it was not causing any problems for emergency responders, and viewers in general.

“As far as traffic control, we have never had any wrecks, nobody has ever been hurt in our street, or crossing our street, and that’s a pretty good record,” Babick said.

But the police department was concerned with more than just traffic and the emergency vehicles. They had received calls from angered neighbors claiming that intoxicated passengers loading in and out of party buses had been reported to have urinated in a yard. These complaints were followed by others complaining of noise and litter surrounding the area.

“All we were trying to do was make his event safer for everyone to be able to go to,” Chief Jordan said. “We try to do what is reasonable and fair and equitable to our community.”

When the Prairie Village Police and City Council finally got the ordinance passed, Babick would be responsible for paying the overtime salaries for police staffed at his event, and supplying the appropriate signage for traffic and parking control, things that the police department could not provide with public funds for this private event.

“I would have to pay for the signs, the no parking and the one way street signs as well as the public workmen to come out, and I would have to pay two officers a night,” Babick said. “I would have to pay the city to put up the Christmas decorations on my house.”

The police department said the total came to be under $2,000 while Babick says the total equaled around $5,000. The expenses were too great for Babick to pay, so he decided he would not be displaying his lights this year. Even though Babick believes the city “hates Christmas,” the police department disagrees.

“I think we are Holiday friendly,” Chief Jordan said. “When this came out, the person on Falmouth said that this killed Christmas. Just read through this ordinance and tell me anything that we are doing wrong. All we were trying to do was make his event safer for everyone to be able to go to.”

Some businesses and community members reached out to the Babick family, offering to pay the expenses of the permit and required services, but Babick declined. To him, he should not even be having to go through this situation at all, and he does not think the city would actually ever issue him a permit.

But Babick has been busying himself this Holiday season with new projects, such as decorating the Holiday Inn on the Plaza, and other offers to decorate window displays. Still, nothing is the same to him as his first project. The project that all started with one string of lights, over 47 years ago. Babick promises the community not to be discouraged though because he has plans for an even brighter future for his lights display.

“It is not over yet, we will have a Christmas display,” Babick said. “It might not be here at the house, but it will be somewhere else that it can be enjoyed and accepted. It will be bigger and better.”