Welcome to Northopolis.com! For those of you wondering how to pronounce “Northopolis”; it is North-opolis.  The name was created since my theme is the North Pole and since I am creating a “city” of some sort, I felt it was right to make this North Pole metropolis, Northopolis. For my returning visitors wanting to continue to the photos, please click on the link below.

View Northopolis pictures!

This project started back in the year 2000 and just escalated from there. Every year I tried to add more and more to make it better than the previous year. In 2006, I decided to do away with all my inflatable figures. One reason for doing away with the inflatable figures is because I wanted to go for originality. It is not much of a display when you have something that someone else has. That is why I had constructed my displays.

Although in the year 2000 was the start of this project, it started off as a joke. My town I live in, Weslaco has a Christmas contest to judge your house. I never felt I would win, let alone place. The town is divided into quadrants (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest). I am in the Southeast quadrant and each quadrant has three winners. It was in 2000 when I received 3rd Place. It was not until 2004 when I received 1st Place! In 2006, I had received another 1st Place.  The word has spread throughout the town as spectators wanting to see the display that was heard from their friends. Many people question where we get most of our display props and when we tell them that we make them ourselves, most are quite stunned.

In 2004, some of my displays were featured on the local town crier newspaper.  In 2005, my display was dedicated to a good friend of mine, Sgt. Eloy G. Jimenez. Eloy was serving in Iraq at the time and I felt it was right to honor him by constructing a soldier figure for my display. It was also that year that my display earned me a newspaper article.  Eloy returned safely back to the United States in early 2006.

For those of you wondering how tall my figures are, well, that is a commonly asked question. The abominable snowman (a.k.a. “Bumble”) stands well over eight feet tall.  The Nutcrackers are around seven feet tall (with their hats). The Grinch and Santa are about six feet tall and Mrs. Claus is about five and half feet tall. The “smoke” from the toy house is actually produced by a fog machine. The “towers” are actually my Ice Palace display. They are replicas of an actual Ice Palace that is built in Minneapolis/St. Paul and is made of actual ice blocks. The snowflakes in my yard are cotton and plastic snowflakes that are suspended by fishing line along two poles.

There are many people to thank for their support in the construction of Northopolis. My wonderful Mother, Minerva Banda, who sewed the massive figures by hand (and sewing machine). Eloy Jimenez for lending me a helping hand. My brother, Joseph Banda, for helping me develop this website and for buying me those Pine Trees. Sabas Gonzales is also appreciated for helping me set up this website. Rene Ayala helped me by constructing my sleigh back in 2002. Of course, the creator of Northopolis, Rey A. Banda.

Enjoy the pictures, and I hope you all enjoyed Northopolis 2008. There are many people to thank for helping make Northopolis 2008 possible. Rene Ayala, thanks for helping install those outlets which gave me extra power. Sabas Gonzales, thanks for helping set up Northopolis everyday. A special thanks goes out to KRGV Newschannel 5 for airing some video footage at the end of their newscast. A special thanks also goes out to Marcy Martinez and Romeo Cantu and KGBT 4 for mentioning Northopolis on their newscast. Northopolis made its television debut thanks to KGBT 4. Thank you, KGBT 4 for your help! Thank you for coming by to see Northopolis 2008 and Northopolis 2009 is just around the corner with new additions. Videos of Northopolis and its television debut on KGBT 4 are available at www.youtube.com/northopolis. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, feel free to email me at Northopolis@gmail.com

Thank you for your support!! 

Continue to Northopolis pictures!