MAYFAIR — Deck the halls?
That's for amateurs.
For more than 40 years, Marie's Pizza, 4127 W. Lawrence Ave., has been dazzling customers with its annual Christmas fantasia.
The singular display of holiday sparkle and glitter is notable for its sheer exuberance and unabashed embrace of the season's message of joy and wonder.
Lights twinkle from the bar, elvish figurines stare impishly from the walls, televisions are draped in pine boughs, and a riot of icicles, snowflakes and metallic swags dangle from the ceiling.
If Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney were to suddenly spring back to life, this is where they'd stage their revival of "White Christmas."
Call it "schmaltz" if you must, just not to owner Nadine Karavidas' face.
She's watched wee ones gasp in amazement and she's seen grown adults reduced to puddles of goo when they come across a bauble "just like grandma's."
"They identify with something ... that's a success," said Karavidas, the third generation of her family to run Marie's. "You've made so many people invoke something sentimental just by decorating."
Marie's has been a Mayfair fixture since 1940, but its tradition of go-for-broke Christmas decor only dates back to the '70s, under the instigation of Karavidas' mother.
"We would spend a Sunday morning decorating," said the petite Karavidas, now 56 years old. "And it just evolved."
Today, Karavidas recruits a small crew of accomplices — fewer than a dozen people — who set to work festooning Marie's dining room and bar the Saturday before Thanksgiving, typically finishing in a single 12-hour marathon session.
"We work straight through," said Karavidas. "But we're eating pizza. How do you think I get everyone to help?"
The effort leaves her exhausted, which, if you were wondering, explains why the Karavidas' household is far less decked than Marie's.
"Usually by the time I finish here, I'm pretty pooped," she said. "I have what I call the most amazing Christmas tree because it comes out of the box and plugs in ... it's all decorated and has lights on it ... and takes about six minutes to put up."
It's almost impossible not to think of Karavidas as the "Marie" of Marie's, but the name actually refers to her paternal grandmother, the wife of Theodore Karavidas, who opened Marie's as a tavern and small packaged goods store.
Nadine was carving out a career as a performer and producer when her father, George, who introduced pizza at Marie's in 1950, died in 2000.
She dropped everything to take over the business.
"I just couldn't imagine it going away," Karavidas said. "People say, 'You could have sold it.' I just never thought of it that way. Responsibility is not the right word. Instinct, that's a good word. It was just an automatic response."
In the decade-plus since, Karavidas said it's been a constant balance between staying true to the past, while also recognizing the need to appeal to a new generation of diners.
But there's only so much change she's willing to introduce.
"I think we have a personality," Karavidas said. "We are authentic, old school."
Marie's is the kind of place people feel is theirs, she said.
"They get engaged here, they tell their parents they're going to have a baby. Significant moments in their life, they do that here," said Karavidas. "You make your family memories here."
So, yeah, Marie's is going to keep on decking the halls, walls and even the staff.
Should anyone suggest otherwise, Karavidas said, "They don't understand."
Nadine Karavidas, owner of Marie's Pizza. [All photos DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
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