Thirty-five years ago, what has become the dazzling Honolulu City Lights Christmas display was just a twinkle in the eye of then-Mayor Frank F. Fasi.

Back then, there were no Shaka Santa and Mrs. Claus welcoming visitors to Honolulu Hale, and certainly no snowmen, reindeer and dancing bears on the lawn; but worst of all, city hall sat in the dark. Without a nearby source of electricity to light the grounds, city workers rigged up a traffic signal control box to power three floodlights that illuminated the first 50-foot Christmas tree erected for the occasion.

The signal lights turned the tree from red to green to amber, naturally, and you could hear the controls clunking every time the lights changed, recalled Carol Costa with a chuckle. The former city spokeswoman said the tree was humbly decorated with only white doves and gold balls, but every year, the festive display became more elaborate, with downtown businesses decorating their buildings and trees, and city workers putting on a parade. The monthlong display, which opened Dec. 7, is “the city’s gift to the community … this is what tells everybody that Christmas is coming,” she said.

Costa may have retired in 2005, but she is still a driving force as a volunteer of the Friends of Honolulu City Lights. The nonprofit, which includes corporate sponsors, raises about $100,000 every year to supplement the city’s contribution of $48,000, said Sherilyn Kajiwara, who followed Costa as the event coordinator and head of the Department of Customer Services.

Kajiwara not only called Costa “the mother of Honolulu City Lights,” but the catalyst behind the Friends’ support, and the “glue” holding everything together. “Her effort makes it shine,” said Kajiwara, estimating over 100,000 people attend the annual event, with about 20,000 on opening night.

It all started in 1985 when longtime Mayor Frank Fasi told Costa that Honolulu Hale was “just not festive enough; we need to do something and bring Christmas back into the courtyard and outside.” There was no money set aside, however, and she only had a few months to get a 50-foot tree in place, and construct some snowmen out of chicken wire and cast-off fabric.

She became an expert at cajoling her fellow workers to pitch in once she caught them — “Everybody would run away when I would come,” added Costa. Eventually, each of the 22 departments got into the act by decorating a Christmas tree on display in the courtyard.

A few years later, the colorful mayor was pleased with the improvement, but added, “Carol, you gotta be more flashy.” So in 1988 she called in designer Owen Ho (of Visual Design Group), who offered to donate his time and labor. He builds large-scale decorative sets for special events, and he’s been at her side since. “He takes great pride in how well he does things each year, and it really looks spectacular,” she said.

Ho designed the famous Shaka Santa in 1989 that sits on top of the fountain, dipping his toes into the water, and flashing the Hawaiian shaka sign that was also Fasi’s political symbol. Ho intended to replace the shaka when the mayor retired with a commonplace wave, but it was such an icon for the city that the succeeding mayor, Jeremy Harris, said not to take the shaka off, Ho said.

For this year’s 35th anniversary, Ho and two helpers made musical instruments to decorate the towering tree, the ornaments varying between 12 to 48 inches wide, with the largest ones hung at the bottom. The theme changes every three years, but Ho can’t help but add new things each year to keep the public’s interest. He operates from a small workshop off Sand Island — “This is where the magic happens,” said Costa.

Over the years Ho has tried to “aim for something that local kids can relate to” in the displays and ornaments. Mrs. Claus or “Tutu Mele” was originally dressed for mainland winters, but he later changed her into a muu muu, kukui nut lei, and a hibiscus in her hair. Ho even gave the Snow Family surfboards, lei and lau hala hats — “I had the (snow) kids eating shave ice.”

Costa marvels that Mr. and Mrs. Claus are still in fabulous shape after so many decades. The late Kurt Nelson, a self-employed props designer, used an electric knife to carve the 21-foot-high, 2-ton Shaka Santa out of the Styrofoam in his backyard, causing thousands of white particles to float around the neighborhood, she said.

So the city moved him to a warehouse with no air-conditioning and a dirt floor. When someone tried to cool things off with fans, the dirt flew onto the sculpture, Costa said. She laughingly recalled other mishaps like a snowman’s head breaking off and rolling down the freeway while being transported.

Nelson trained parks department artist Mike Smith, now retired, to sculpt Mrs. Claus five years later, as well as playful reindeer, toy bears, elves and other characters to turn the city hall grounds into a toy land.

“We’ve had many tough days and tough years in bringing it all together but our city people were fabulous,” Costa said. “It’s an overwhelming job. You really need to know what to do. But we’ve loved it.”

Ho is one of “a devoted core group of people who’ve always been part of it,” Costa said, including Naomi Carter, Jeff Gere, Chris Sabalski, Barney Isaacs, Charlie Chinn, Al Amper and Alex Ching. Most of them are retired, like herself and Charles “Woody” Woodward of the parks department, who rigged up the traffic control box, but still volunteer.

Some of the departments go all out in decorating a float for the Public Workers Electric Light Parade, which started in 1990. “Our guys were very, very proud of the equipment they had. … You could eat off the back of the garbage truck,” it was so cleaned up and freshly painted, Costa said. After the parade, the vehicles are parked nearby and kids can sit in a firetruck or garbage truck, or talk to the police and ambulance drivers, which makes endearing photographs.

Ho and Costa are rewarded for all their work when they “see the expressions on the young kids, and hear their oohs and aahs. We’ve seen generations go by and smile at the Shaka Santa,” Ho said. He remembers saying to Costa some 20 years ago as they walked among throngs of people: “ ‘Look what we created!’ Even we were amazed at how it had taken off, and happy!”

Costa added, “Mayor Fasi had absolutely no idea what it was going to be like,” but he correctly predicted she would never be able to give it up. “It’s not Christmas without the lights. You’ve raised your children on it, and now your children are coming back to watch it with their kids.”

—

HONOLULU CITY LIGHTS

>> When: Open daily from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. through Dec. 29

>> Where: Frank F. Fasi Civic Center Grounds

>> Info: For family events, visit honolulucitylights.org