The Quinata family has done it again. For the third year in a row, they’ve turned the common area in the St. Fidelis Friary into a magical winter wonderland, complete with snow-covered mountains, skiers, ice skaters, old-fashioned shops, Christmas trees, twinkling lights, a midnight sky, Christmas carolers, Santa Claus, and of course, Christmas trains – five of them to be exact – plus one trolley.

This labor of love is truly a family affair, starting with patriarch Roman Quinata, who does the electrical wiring, his wife Mae, and filtering down to their sons and spouses, Roman Jr. and Anne, Frank and Pam, JQ and Donna, and daughter Terri and her husband Mike Doyle, and some of the grandkids, too. The tradition actually started about two decades ago at the Quinata home in Ipan, and then in 2007, Fr. Eric Forbes asked them to move it to the friary.

This year, they started out in early October with directions from Fr. Joe English – he wanted to be able to walk down the center of the display and have the balcony used, too. So the Quinatas designed their train village to cover both sides of the room all the way to the ceiling, with a trestle bridge over the door to the balcony connecting the two sides.

“This year we wanted the San Francisco effect,” said JQ. Both sides are snow covered hills that zig and zag, with miniature houses, shops, a golf course, soccer field, ski jump, several performances of the Nutcracker ballet, and the five Capuchin churches on Guam: Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in Agana Heights, St. Francis in Yona, San Miguel in Talofofo, St. Jude in Sinajana, and Santa Teresita in Mangilao, all tucked into the nooks and crannies of the hillside.

The magic of this 1800-foot display emanates not only from the twinkling lights, six giant bolts of cotton that created the snow, the trains, figurines and all the Christmas symbols; it is something inherent in the care and workmanship that goes into creating this idyllic scene. Pam Quinata explains that someone will fix the lighted crystal snowflakes into a chandelier-like shape in the middle of the room, and then have to leave, and when they come back, someone else has taken that concept and put crystal snowflakes at the end of the streams of dark material that symbolize the night sky. They each build on what the others have done. “It evolves,” said Pam.

This year, Pam’s son Carlo Pangelinan and his cousin Derrick Quinata are one of the major sponsors with their used car lot Auto Traders. Pam made a miniature of their business, using dental floss and little stickers she found to create the flags so commonly equated with car sales. It’s that type of detailing – tying red lights to each of the railroad ties along the front edge of the display – that gives the display its special touch.

Many other sponsors and two other families joined in this year’s effort. The Quinatas refer to Rick Fegurgur as the man with the “Midas touch,” because he engineered the train, and brought back to life display items that had sat broken for years – including some 20-year-old strings of lights. “That’s a bad rumor. I just fix things,” Fegurgur said. He and his wife Donna helped out, as did the family of Julia Villagomez in Sinajana, who arranged the beautiful Christmas dolls and Nativity display on the enclosed balcony, and decorated the foyer of the friary.

Why do they all do it? “Heart – we do this for the church, for the community,” explained JQ. “When we see families challenged financially or with each other, they come here, see the display, it gives them a whole different perspective… when they say, ‘Wow! How could this kind of display happen on Guam?’ – that’s what makes it worthwhile.”

Behind him, a family posed by the Christmas trees at one end of the display, the children’s faces beaming.

Very worthwhile indeed.

The Quinata’s “2009 Christmas Around the World” is on display at the St. Fidelis Friary in Agana Heights through January 3, 2010, from 6 – 9 pm.

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