Lighting up the holidays

Navarre Beach: home of white sands, tranquil sunsets, and, for the Christmas season, one remarkable Northwest Pole.
Each December, Al and Jeanette Seiders string an estimated 4,000 lights along their beachside home in a unique display of Christmas cheer. It is a decidedly Floridian winter wonderland: a sailboat navigates the sugar sand under icy sails and twinkling blue rigging, and penguins romp and slide across a tiki statue. Overhead, Santa surveys the scene from his parasail. Below the house, colored lights cascade above and around the Seiders’s outdoor bar.
“We just want to promote this beautiful place,” Jeanette Seiders said. That mission is a decided success; on most nights the streets are packed with visitors who want to stop by and enjoy the lights.
The Seiders moved to Navarre Beach in 2003 from south Florida. “The beauty of this area and the people brought us here. Everyone is just so friendly,” Jeanette said. She and her husband own Blue Moon Vacation Rentals, and rent properties year-round to visitors from across the country. “The best part is meeting these really cool guests,” she said. “They look forward to coming to Navarre all year, and they’re all so happy to be here.”
The couple started their tradition even before they moved to Navarre. In south Florida, the Seiders won first place three years in a row in annual lighted boat competitions. Jeanette now ensures that the entrance sign to Navarre Beach is carefully decorated for each holiday. The couple also breaks out all the decorating stops for Halloween.
Even the interior design of the Seiders’s home exudes a classy mirth. “You wouldn’t want to do all this in New York,” Jeanette said. She gestured at the lighted snowflakes that hung from her palm tree and smiled. “It’s just happy.”
The Seiders host two very special visitors annually for Thanksgiving: Jeanette’s parents, Birgit and George Jacobsen of Long Island, New York. Al said he starts preparing for the Christmas display immediately after Halloween so that the Jacobsens can enjoy the lights. He has the decorating process down to a science. “I’d say it takes about five days total to put everything up,” he said with a grin. Hearing this, Jeanette laughed. “Maybe a couple of weeks,” she added.
Both Birgit Jacobsen and her daughter are accomplished artists, but Jacobsen, with a smile, denied any hand in passing along the creative spark. “I don’t know where [Jeanette] gets it from,” she said. “She’s just self-taught. It just comes out.”
The Seiders’ home is, for the moment, located at the Northwest Pole, but those without Rudolph’s guidance can find it at 7810 Gulf Blvd. in Navarre Beach.