Walking inside Christmas at the Canjar's

This weekend, you can get into the holiday spirit at a festive home in Melbourne. Festive indeed. The house and the host say that it's a fully transformed Christmas wonderland. Fox 35's David Martin is there live to tell us all about it. And Santa's there, too. Hey, David, good morning, friend. Good morning to you, Danielle. Hello, Amy. It's my sincere honor and pleasure to introduce you to the homeowner. Christmas at the CanJar's Nick CanJar. Nick, good morning to your friend. And Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas. In this early November. Yes. Hey, it's still Christmas time. It can be year-round for many people. Alright, so I want to let our audience know you're inviting them into your house this weekend. Yes, sir. Saturday and Sunday to explore every single room because every single room is themed to this year a Christmas song. Correct, yes. Even the bathrooms are decorated. Very good. Now, when you walk in, you want to make sure you get one of these trail maps on the In front of it, you've got the themes of each room listed. And on the back, I love this, things to look for during your visit, like a treasure hunt. Absolutely. First room is a jaw dropper. You call this? This is the Dickens Village. The Dickens Village. How many different Dickens Village houses and things do you have here? We have about 139 plus. Oh my goodness. How many years have you been collecting these? For about 25 years. 25, what do you store all this year round? It all goes in the garage, believe it or not. Nice and compact. Wow. My goodness. I bet the kids come in here and just want to stare at the details. Oh, absolutely. Every time you look at it, you see something different. You do. My goodness. And why do you even do this for 13 years here? Why do you do this? I do this because, well, one, I love Christmas, and two, we were able to start matching it up with a local charity to make a difference in our community. So why not have a little fun and do a little good for the community? That's what the Christmas spirit is all about. Some of these houses, by the way, I've noticed they have lights on them, even have moving parts. I can see this, it looks like a... It's a spinning wheel. A spinning wheel. That's our gin factory, so it's all making that gin for our London workers. The gin. Yes. All right, why not? Holiday spirits indeed. Oh, my goodness. Do you allow people to come in here and take photographs and videos? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. And you will have Santa here this weekend. Santa, good morning to you. Oh, good morning. St. Nick, have you met Nick? Yes, sir. I have. I've known Nick for a while. All right. So each room of your house has a record, like an album, kids. Yes. An old 33 here, somewhere in the room to describe what the theme is. Now, up there, that says jolly old St. Nicholas. Yes. That would make sense. So Santa Claus, I assume you'll be here taking photographs with the kiddos. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. For sure. Okay, so we're in his room. We're moving to the kitchen. What is the theme of the kitchen this year? It is hot chocolate, but better to pair with the kitchen than food and drink. From the movie Polar Express? Correct, yes. Good movie, good song. And you serve hot chocolate in here? Well, imaginary hot chocolate. Ah, okay. But in the backyard, you'll have a ton of vendors back there selling things. Yes, selling things. Including food and drink. Yes, yes. Okay. Well, you mentioned this all goes to helping a local charity and a local non-profit. We have Tara from Family Promise of... Brevard joining us now. Tara, good morning to you. Good morning. When you walked into the house, what did you think? Amazing, incredible. Yeah. They do this every year, though, so you've been partnering with them for many years, 13 years. And so what does Family Promise do? We are keeping families in their homes so children can thrive and just ensuring that families and their children have a stronger future. And you are now busier than ever because of those floods. Yes, absolutely. Families were already really struggling. About 40% of our community is about a paycheck away from losing housing and things, events like the flood certainly impact our family's ability to stay stable. Okay, so we're asking, you're asking the audience to come in for what kind of donation? So a minimum $5 donation. donation. Of course, more is always welcome to go to the great cause. We'll also have raffles. And like you said, the vendors out back will be selling things and 10% of all of their sales will be going to Family Promise as well. So there's many different ways to donate to make sure we make a difference in the local community. What a sweet man. Amazing. I mean, I love it when people pair their passion with purpose, and it's just magic. Passion with purpose. Moving into the dining room now, what is the theme of this blue kind of room? This is Jingle Bells. And Jingle Bells. Again, you'll know what the theme is if you have a piece of paper, your trail map, or every room has the record on the wall. This is Jingle Bells. These are actual records? Those are actual records. Where'd you find those at? Somebody's garage. Ah! Not yours, but you don't listen to records anymore. My goodness. When did you start setting up for this? So we started July 4th weekend. People were setting off fireworks, and we were setting up Christmas lights. Oh, my gosh. All right, so Saturday, what time did you open? Saturday we're open 4 to 7, and Sunday we're open 2 to 5. Is there a website we can get out there, Nick? Yes, it's on our website. Facebook page, which is tinyurl.com forward slash CanJarChristmas2026. If you Google Christmas at the CanJars. It will come up. It will come up. Believe me, you're the only one doing it with the name CanJar. I don't know. And you can help, of course, Tara and Brevard's family promise. Thank you very much, Tara, for joining us this morning. I wish you a Merry Christmas. Nick, I love what you've done here. We're not done. We've only shown a third of the house, so we'll continue showing it to you in our 9 o'clock hour as well. Ladies, we'll send it back to you in the studio. Thank you. All right, coming up this weekend, you can get into the holiday spirit at a very festive house and it's located in Melbourne and they definitely have their tree up. So the hosts say they are fully transformed their Christmas wonderland inside their home. And so why wouldn't Fox 29's David Martin be there live to tell us all about it this morning? Hey, David. Hey there, Danielle. Hi, Stephanie and Amy. Once again, Nick Kanjar joins us live from his house, the Kanjar house. Christmas at the Kanjars is the attraction open on Saturday and Sunday for you to walk through 11 different rooms, all themed to a different Christmas carol or Christmas song. Nick, we're standing in what you might consider the marquee attraction of the house, the Dickens Christmas Village, with 130 plus different buildings and settings from that era. My goodness, you've done a beautiful job. Well, thank you very much. Yes, it's fun to put together and see how all the streets come to life, if you want to say, as you look through each scene. So you started building this in July. You've been collecting these houses since 1998. Thank you. And I asked you earlier in the commercial break, how many different village settings are there in the world? And you said approximately... There's about 400 houses in the series, and I have about 139. I never disclosed the real number to keep me out of trouble with the family. I'm like... And so you've got more collecting to do. So if someone's watching and they have something they want to donate to you, You'll gladly take it. Absolutely. We'd love to add it and add it to the fundraiser. You store all this stuff in the house and the rest of the year in your garage, you mentioned. Yes, it all folds up neatly in about 40 different bins. Each room is themed, as I mentioned, and throughout every room, there is at least one nativity in this room. Now, I think it would take us hours to find the nativity here, but you don't need to tell us. I don't want any spoilers. Let the audience come and see this in person, which you're inviting them to do. Saturday, what time? Saturday, we're open 4 to 7, and Sunday, we're open 2 to 5. And you've been doing this for 13 years as a way to give back to the community. Absolutely. And you're asking for at least a $5 donation. I think it's astounding. My goodness, I could just Take pictures and video in here all day long. By the way, Santa Claus will be here on Saturday and Sunday to get some great photos and to take your wish list. Santa, how are you this morning? Oh, I'm doing fine. Thank you. And Santa's been here since year one. That was 13 years ago. What are kids asking for of recent years? Are they talking to you? Oh, most of them are asking for the Nintendo Switch 2. That and the robots. That seemed to be the big thing this year. The very specific request. The Nintendo Switch 2. And you like being part of this, don't you? Oh, I love it. Love it. Love it. Nick? He's been grateful, very, very grateful. All right, thank you, Santa. Let's go meet the person who's in charge of the benefactor, if you will. It's the beneficiary of the nonprofit. It's a charity. It's called Family Promise of Space Coast. And Tara joins us live now to talk about it. Do I have the name of that right? Yeah, Family Promise Space Coast. All right. And so, Tara, what do you do with the Family Promise Space Coast? We're keeping families housed so children can thrive. We can serve families in any kind of housing crisis. We want to stabilize that situation either through emergency shelter or eviction prevention, wrap them in services, and then just continue to help them uplift so that they are not only able to survive this housing crisis, crisis, but thrive as they go forward. Maybe appropriate that you and I are standing in one of the guest bedrooms here at the Kanjar House here. It's themed to what, Nick? This room is all about Frosty the Snowman and his snowman friends. Very good. And I would know that because there's a record, an LP, a 33, right there on the bed. And did you hand paint all of those? Yes, a friend and I hand painted all 21 of them that are hidden throughout the display. Hidden throughout the house. So if you want to know what the theme is, just look for the record. They don't play anymore with that painting on them. That I can tell you. And so Family Promise Space goes very busy, obviously, right now with the recent flooding. You've got folks lined up, I'm sure, needing assistance. Yeah, it's definitely compounding an already existing... It's a real challenge in our community and across Florida. Families are just struggling to pay for the cost of housing, and wages aren't necessarily keeping up. So we're trying to help them do the best we can to keep them in their homes. Tara, thanks for what you do. Thank you. Nick, let's continue the tour here. Before we run out of time, I want to let our audience know that, again, there are 11 rooms, and you're asking for a $5 minimum donation. That's the least someone can do to walk in here. This is your, I guess, your family room back here. You've got three records on the wall. I'm seeing... Well, I can't read. Charlie Brown Christmas, one of them. So what is the theme in here? So this is all of our movie soundtracks. Charlie Brown Christmas, Polar Express, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. And you'll find different elements throughout from each of those movies. Plus, you know, a couple classic, like It's a Wonderful Life. Okay. Find them on Google. Just Google The Christmas at the Can Jars. That's C-A-N-J-A-R. Good luck bringing hundreds of people into your house this weekend. My goodness, are you ready for the crowds? I'm ready, bringing on. Ready to do some good for the community. Listen, he works for Orange County during the day, and he used to work at Disney. back in the day, so you know how to handle crowds. Absolutely. You gotta get them this weekend, that's for sure. By the way, we spoke about the Charlie Brown Christmas. That just became the number one selling jazz album in the history of planet Earth. That doesn't surprise me. It's a classic. It is a classic. Oh my gosh, so much to see here. Stephanie, Danielle, and Amy, we are gonna send it back to you and show you more. Yep, we haven't shown everything yet. We'll show that in a 10 o'clock hour. Now there's still more. It is time to get into the holiday spirit. We're going to take you to a festive home today in Melbourne. This is really inspiring me to get my holiday decorations up. So the hosts say it's a fully transformed Christmas wonderland. And Fox 35 David Martin is there as promised to tell us all about what he has in store. Hey, David. Ladies, I love the fact that there's a guide map for this attraction here in Melbourne, Florida. We'll get to this in a second, but welcome to 2767 Empire Avenue in Melbourne, owned by Nick Kanjar. This is Christmas at the Kanjars. He's been doing this for 13 years, inviting you this weekend to come and tour the entire house. Nick, what's the name of your neighborhood? The Kingsville subdivision. Okay, very good. So... You've been doing this for 13 years. You've let people come into your house to see the inside because you use the proceeds of ticket sales to go back to the community, and I love that. When you walk in, you get... Whoa. The wow factor is right here, big time. Your living room looks spectacular. How do you describe this room? I consider it magical, it's set in Charles Dickens England and you can find everything here from the monuments, Big Ben, to little things like Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol and throughout. If you look closely you may have seen references to the 12 Days of Christmas. Yeah, and every room has a unique thing to find. In this room, you're asking the audience to find four Santas throughout the village. There are four Santas. As well as a Mary Poppins somewhere in here. Yes. Do you find that people stay in for a while, maybe too long? No, I can never say you can stay too long, but they do stay a while and enjoy it, which is the whole point is look at everything because there's not a square inch that's the same as in the next. You've got 130 different settings in here. There are more than 400 available. world so you could you have plenty of room for expansion. Absolutely. All right this is one of 11 rooms let's go back to another room here. Where you'll find Santa Claus. And what's the theme of this room? Of course, it's Jolly Old St. Nick. Jolly Old St. Nick. Hello, St. Nick. How are you? Hello. I'm fine. How are you today? Well, I'm fine. Are you going to be here this weekend to take pictures of the kiddos? I'll be here with the kiddos and the adults. And the adults. Yeah, of course. They want their photographs, too. And we know this is his themed room because there are record albums. Well, where's the record album in here? It's right up here. Way up there. Jolly Old St. Nicholas. You've taken in albums, 33 records. It was the 33 and a half, third, right? Yes, yes. You remember those, right, Santa? Oh, yes. You might remember before 33 and a third. What were they before? They were probably... 48 and I think it was 70 something. 78s. Yeah. 78s, that's right. Those are records. We're aging ourselves. Every room has a hand-painted record. And by the way, look at these 15 different Santa Clauses in his bookcase. They represent a different country. You've been to all of them. Absolutely. I collect them as I go to them. Of course, there's more available... I have a series, but I have a rule. I only can collect it if I've been there. I love Greece. You've got Germany. You've got America, of course. You've got somewhere in the Scandinavian countries, I assume. Absolutely. Yeah. Congrats on your travels. Wonderful. Let us go this way into the kitchen and meet Tara. Tara is someone very special. She is part of an organization in town called Family Promise Space Coast. And the ticket sales, proportionally at least, are going to go to you and your operation. How are you, Tara? I'm doing great. Thank you. What does Family Promise Space Coast do? We are keeping families in their homes so children can thrive. We're helping families at any stage of a housing crisis. We're wrapping them in support and then just helping them uplift to stay housed. And so you're taking some ticket sales today, the donations this weekend. And are you giving all of them to her? So the entry fee, 100% is going to her. Our vendors outside will be here selling homemade crafts and goodies. They'll be donating 10%. And, of course, we'll be having raffles, and 100% of those sales will go to her. So he's asking for you to drop five bucks on the door, at the very least. So if you can afford a little more, great. It all goes to the good purpose of helping people stay in their homes. And good Lord knows we've had a rough week in two weeks now in Southern Brevard County in particular. Yeah, absolutely. I can't think of any better gift than the gift of housing and a safe place to call home. Yeah, kids like that. A safe place to put their heads down. Thank you, Tara. It's a pleasure meeting you. Yes, thank you. All right, this is the dining room. What are we finding in this room? This is the Jingle Bells room, right? It is. And so if you look at the painted pieces on the wall, they actually form a phrase from Jingle Bells. If you read it from left to right. Jingle Bells all the way. Jingle Bells all the way. I love that. Back now, we haven't shown any of this back part of the house here. Actually, let me send Orlando in first. It's a little tight there. Orlando, you go in first. To the left, we have a bedroom. What's the theme in there? So that's retro Christmas, and the song is walking around the Christmas tree. You can find things, the bubble lights, the old finial tree toppers, you know, the blasts from the past, as we say. Even the bathroom across the hallway is decorated as the stank, stunk, stink. What is that? Absolutely. Mr. Grinch is in there. He's moved in for the Christmas season. So watch out. So do not use the restrooms while you're here, please. This is the Grinch's. Private bathroom. And in the back, a very special room. Absolutely. In honor of the 250th birthday of America, we're doing I'll Be Home for Christmas, a tribute to our military service members of the community. You can find different pictures of family members, community members on the tree, thanking them for their service. Some of them are retired and some of them are still active. So if someone comes on this weekend and doesn't have a picture on the tree, can they give you a picture? Absolutely, and we'll add it. If they're a veteran, of course, very good. I think this is so wonderful. Google Christmas at the Can Jars. details about this wonderful event. Now 13 years in the making. Come over here for a second. So what's the craziest thing you've seen walk through your house over these past 13 years? Oh, that's hard to say, but we've had a lot of great visitors. You know, I would say the craziest thing is people drove up from Miami for the first year we did this. And, of course, we didn't publicize that much. We were very small. And so it was kind of cool to have them and welcome them. Your house phone's ringing right now because someone's probably watching you on TV. Maybe. And Miami's a far away town, I'll tell you what. It is far, yes. It is far. And you get a lot of repeat customers, don't you? Absolutely. People ask me every year if we're going to do this. And so they're always excited to come back. Each year's a different theme. So seeing what we're going to do each year kind of gives them a little excitement and begins their Christmas joy. Christmas at the Canjars this Saturday, this Sunday. Saturday, the hours are 4 to 7, and Sunday, the hours are 2 to 5. And there'll be vendors in the backyard selling crafts and goodies, so make it a fun little family getaway, and this is in Melbourne, Florida. Thank you, Nick. An absolute pleasure and an honor meeting you. Thank you for keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in Christmas, and that's important. Pleasure meeting you as well. Thank you. Ladies, we're going to send it back to the studio. We'll see you here on Saturday. We have a question before you go. We were talking about favorites. Our childhood show, David Martin, what was your favorite show when you were a kid? And please ask your friends, too. All right, so our question of the day is favorite childhood show. Nick's slightly younger than I am. Tara, I don't know how old you are, but what was your favorite show? It's gotta be Sesame Street. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. I actually am with Amy back in the studio. I watched Captain Kangaroo and Electric Company a lot. And I know picture pages, pictures, pages, time to get your picture pages. And I got it in the mail too. I love that one. Do you remember picture pages? I don't, but I know Electric Company. I remember the song. Do you remember any of this stuff? I do not, but I will surprise you. My favorite childhood show was not actually meant for children. It was I Love Lucy. What's wrong with Lucy? Nothing wrong with that. That's That's a good one. That's why you are the way you are today. You're fun-loving. I'm loving it. No question about it. A classic. All right. Hey, you guys. That was fun. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. That was fun. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David. Thanks, David.