Homespun elements — a plantation-style house with a porch, school-kid-time paper-flower lei — will be among the notable additions to the city's annual Honolulu City Lights spectacle, lighting up Saturday at Honolulu Hale and the downtown corridor.

Owen Ho, the prolific designer, came up with the concepts, as he does annually, for the popular holiday attraction that launches Honolulu's Christmas season.

"Oh, my goodness, I've been here (designing the exhibition) for at least 20 years," said Ho, who created the Shaka Santa during Mayor Frank F. Fasi's administration. Since then, he's been chief elf for the exhibits that folks can experience on foot, by car or by trolley.

He was employed by Duty Free two decades ago; now he's one of the town's busiest special-events coordinators, lending his ideas not only to the seasonal attraction but to fundraisers such as the Heart Ball (on behalf of Macy's), the black-tie affair for the Honolulu Symphony, the Patriots Celebration for the Hawaii Foodbank and more.

Clearly, however, the City Lights attraction scores the biggest audience with the longest run, from early December to New Year's.

With "Ku'u Home (Our Home)" as the theme this year, City Lights — now in its 22nd season — needed a signature icon that reflected Hawai'i's diverse cultures, the aloha spirit and the defining importance of 'ohana.

"So we came up with a plantation home with a little porch, with two animated chicks on the porch, and a (live) Santa Claus greeting visitors sitting on the front step of the porch," said Ho. Kids will be able to visit Santa at night only.

"Santa will be the same one who's been doing it for at least 10 years, Joe (Magaldi), who is a skinny Santa from Frank Fasi's and Jeremy Harris' administrations," said Ho. "He has retired but continues to do this as a hobby."

Because this is a tropical Santa, he'll be in shorts, of course — none of that stuffy red suit lined with fur. "It'll be bermuda shorts or surfer jams," Ho said.

To complement the plantation house, the Christmas tree fronting City Hall will be decked out in local-style paper flower lei — "you know, the ones we all made from construction paper and straws," Ho said.

Because of the scale of the tree, the "flowers" — five rows of blossoms made out of Styrofoam — will range vastly in size, the smaller ones at the top at 10 inches in diameter, the bottom rows boasting flowers that measure 48 inches.

"The decorations are all new — candy and gumballs, wrapped in vinyl," said Ho. There will be at least 125 pieces of candy on the tree.

To adhere to the local theme, the tree will be surrounded by Hawaiian instruments, including 'uli 'uli (gourd rattles with feathers at the top), pahu drums and ipu (the bottle gourd), implements common in hula accompaniment.

The drums will be extraordinarily large, measuring 12 feet tall, said Ho. In the holiday fantasyland that is Honolulu City Lights, the bigger, the better.

Yet another Honolulu City Lights ornament — the seventh — is available for collectors. It depicts Santa and Mrs. Santa decorating the Honolulu Hale Christmas tree with paper-flower lei featured in this year's design.

The 2006 ornaments, like the previous ones dating back to 2000, are $16 and available at Macy's stores on O'ahu, Borders Books and Music at Ward Centre and Waikele and the Honolulu City Store at Ala Moana Center.

Mail order cost is $19 per ornament, which includes shipping and handling. Send check payable to Friends of Honolulu City Lights, P.O. Box 8877, Honolulu, HI 96830.

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.