The annual Holiday Luminaria display was a stunning success again this year, thanks to the hard work of chief organizer, Phil Arena, and a band of hard-working, merry elves who prepared and placed about 4000 bags with candles to create a spectacular and moving display enjoyed by many folks from Gorham and beyond.

Phil said, “There is always a steady stream of people who drive through to see the luminarias. Our neighborhoods have no street lights, so other than the moon, the light from the luminaria against the snow is just spectacular.”

According to Phil, the tradition in Gorham dates back to Lombard Estates in the 1980s. “Rumor has it that someone in the Lombard neighborhood brought the Luminaria tradition from their previous neighborhood,” he said. Over the years, the tradition has grown to encompass South Woods, Village Woods and the Heartwood neighborhood as well.

Phil and his family moved to South Woods in 1996. He loves Gorham because it is central to everything: the mountains, the ocean, the lake and the airport. “Gorham is one of the only bedroom communities that has a center of town that I can walk to. There are many great restaurants, grocery stores, pubs and shops within a 20 minute walk,” he said.

Phil fell in love with the luminaria tradition and became the chief organizer in 2006. In all that time, they have only had to cancel twice due to rain.

Pulling this Holiday celebration together is quite a process that requires many hands and good teamwork. Phil explained it begins in early November when he orders cases of candles and 6 lb. white paper bags from a restaurant supply store. Hannaford provides brown paper bags to hold the kits and plastic bags for the sand. John Pompeo makes a pile of sand available. Individual families pitch in to cover the cost of supplies.

When the supplies come in, they are distributed to the neighborhood captains: HeartWood are the Chris Chapin and Katie Rosingana; Phil covers South Woods; Lombard Estates is Mayna Pease; Village Woods Circle captain, Chuck Nadeau, wife Victoria Reynolds and kids Grant, Adele and Wyatt, are passing the torch to Brett and Nicky Hudson and their children, Jack and Maddy.

Each neighborhood also has a number of elves who help assemble the kits and distribute them to the individual houses. The South Woods elves are the Curley and the Speed families. Father and son, Fred and Luc LaMontagaine, Cindy Campbell, and Jim Paurk and his wife Stephania are elves for Lombard Estates.

In early December, the captains and their elves go to the sand pit and fill plastic bags with sand. Then the sand, 12 candles and 12 white bags are placed in a brown bag to make a kit. “Each house receives one or more kits, with corner lots getting up to three kits,” Phil said.

Each house assembles and spaces their luminarias along the road and lights them about 5 p.m. The candles burn until about midnight.

In a bittersweet footnote, while Phil has coordinated the Holiday luminarias for many years, this is his last holiday as the coordinator. He is actively reaching out to friends and neighbors to recruit someone to take over. “I would like to hand off the tradition to a young family so that they can carry on the tradition and make their own memories. I foresee me traveling and spending Christmas in a warmer place from time to time,” he said.

Many people feel it would be a shame to see this end. Philip can be reached via cell, 207-939-9877, or email, philiparena@gmail.com.