"He's like that Chevy Chase character in the movie `Christmas Vacation.' You know, what's his name - Clark Griswold."
- Marc Weinstock


He's right. Denny Tedesco is the Clark Griswold of Califa Street in Woodland Hills. A man totally obsessed with outdoor Christmas lights.

He's the first guy on his block to climb the ladder the day after Thanksgiving, strings of lights draped over his shoulder.

Lots of them. Clark Griswold numbers. In the thousands.

Kids love him. TV weathermen do standups in front of his house. Neighbors wonder what his electricity bill looks like in January.

"My son lives and dies for Christmas," says Denny's mother, Carmeline Tedesco.

Which is why she could not let her son's house stand dark this Christmas. No lights on the Tedesco house? Impossible.

But it was possible, very possible.

Denny, 49, got the bad news in August that he had a cancerous tumor in his neck. The operation was a success, but as a precaution doctors wanted him to undergo a few months of radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

The Clark Griswold of Califa Street became too weak and sick most of the time to climb out of bed, let alone climb a ladder the day after Thanksgiving to light up his neighborhood.

No laughs this Christmas, like the year he threw potato flakes all over the front lawn to simulate snow, and it rained during the night.