Bannock County Assessor’s Office gets in the holiday spirit
The Bannock County Assessor’s Office is really getting into the holiday spirit. It went all out with Christmas decorations.
Each department in the office decorated in a different theme, making for a festive holiday atmosphere.
A life-size scale of a gingerbread house and “The Nightmare Before Christmas” are just a few of the office themes inside the assessor’s office.
But first prize went to the appraisal department for its real-life display of the holiday classic “Christmas Vacation.”
“We decided to do ‘Christmas Vacation’ this year because it is one of the best Christmas classics of all time,” said Scott Jensen, who dressed up as Clark Griswold. “And we just kept coming up with more and more ideas and we think it may have gone a little overboard but it was well worth it, we had a lot of fun doing it.”
The scene had second-story windows, pictures from the show and of course, a huge amount of lights. There’s even the family’s burnt Christmas tree, which happens to be a local tree burned in the Charlotte fire.
The appraisers themselves even got into character. From Clark Griswold and his wife Ellen to Aunt Bethany to Cousin Eddie, the whole family was there. The employees spent all their own time coming in on multiple Saturdays to put it together. They also used their own decorations and any money used was completely out of pocket.
“The employees here are having so much fun,” Jensen said. “I think the biggest reason for doing it was that we wanted to spread Christmas cheer. We’ve invited the public to come out and see this spectacle and it’s just a fun time to do this and have fun with our employees.”
The employees said they feel it turned out great. They said they even had some Griswold-like moments when putting it together.
“As a Griswold, I think it turned out fantastic,” Jensen said. “We blew a couple fuses on the lights as you would guess with a Griswold Christmas.”
“Christmas Vacation” was released in 1989 and has been a Christmas classic ever since.
