Column: Display artist makes space for the spirit of the season

The Kealoha Arms condominium in Makiki was constructed in 1970 and rises seven walk-up stories with 32 units ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. There’s a pool. A nice recreation area, as well.

But nowhere in any of its various real-estate listings is mentioned what many residents have come to appreciate as the building’s most unique and special selling point: Make friends with that nice middle-age guy on the third floor and you could land a holiday invitation to a coziest winter wonderland south of Santa’s digs.

Each year, starting as soon as the Halloween decorations come down, visual display freelancer Michael Fend begins the process of transforming his apartment studio space into a celebration of all things Christmas. When he’s done, he and his wife, Gabriela, invite friends, family and neighbors to take in the sensorial buffet.

“I love seeing their faces light up,” said Fend, 54. “It’s the spirit of the season that I really get into. If I can, I like to put a smile on people’s faces.”

That’s been true for nearly as long as Fend can remember.

Fend’s parents were both from Germany. His father worked at the old Outrigger Reef Hotel for more than 40 years. His mother, a homemaker who also did housekeeping for private residences, instilled in Fend and his older sister an appreciation for art and interior design.

As a child, Fend took up drawing and painting as his first means of artistic expression. As he grew up, his focus squared upon visual display and presentation, his aesthetic sensibilities molded in part by his childhood travels around Europe.

“Art has been a passion since I was 4 or 5 years old,” he said. “When I was little, I’d decorate for my mother and grandmother. As I got older, my work got better, and it just escalated into more and more.”

Fend got his first taste of professional display work while still a teenager, helping to decorate Christmas trees at Ala Moana Center. His career began in earnest a few years later when he joined the visual display crews at Liberty House (now Macy’s) in Kahala Mall and the now-defunct J.C. Penney’s department store in Ala Moana Center. From there came requests for work on private residences and a robust career as a freelancer.

Yet, Fend’s home decorations for the holidays remain an ever-evolving passion project.

Resisting the temptation to pack as much as he can in his relatively small studio, Fend carefully plots out moderately sized but elaborately realized decorations that evoke the spirit of the holidays while maintaining a livable space. There’s a Nativity scene, always, plus individual tabletop displays and door-frame adornments. And trees — usually four or five of different sizes, each with its own look or theme.

Gabriela, who is from Peru, brings her own unique touches in the form of European dolls, often bedecked in holiday clothes she sews herself.

No two years are the same — this year Fend designed around an “Enchanted Forest” theme — yet Fend makes sure that pieces of Christmases past retain a place. In this way the annual display celebrates not just the moment, but the memories that underpin it.

Fend used to spend Christmas Eve with his parents at their apartment three floors up. Hannelore “Katie” Fend died three years ago, a few weeks before Christmas. Kurt Fend, her high school sweetheart, followed last year.

Fend divided his mother’s Christmas ornaments with his sister and includes them, along with other special holiday keepsakes that remind him of his parents, in his holiday displays.

“Mom used to always decorate for Christmas,” Fend said. “Having their favorite ornaments here with me, I can still feel their spirit.”

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.