Mix 100 years of history, a birthday party and the annual Honolulu holiday display. Roll into one. Add an extra-large string of pearls and you get a sneak peek at the newest attraction at Honolulu City Lights.

Four big Christmas-y cakes.

As Honolulu celebrates the city's 100th birthday — well, when you're a municipality, that's a centennial — the idea is to weave the anniversary theme into the mega-popular Honolulu City Lights extravaganza at Honolulu Hale.

And that's where you find holiday helper Alex Ching, a city recreation specialist for the Department of Parks and Recreation. With assistance from City Lights veteran contractor Owen Ho and a crew of dedicated workers, Ching created four three-layer cakes, three to go near the big tree at City Hall and one to crown the new Kapolei City Lights display.

Ching sculpted the cakes from foam into red, gold, silver, green and white jumbo confections. Then he mixed in some fiberglass, concrete and brightly colored automotive paint. The "100" topper won't be permanently attached, so the cakes can be re-used in other celebrations.

"I'd hate to see these four display pieces only come out for one year," Ching said. "We don't want to contribute to government waste."

The cakes will be placed with pairs of bears near the big holiday tree in Honolulu and at Kapolei. The festivities kick off Saturday with the display remaining until Jan. 1. At Kapolei, the festivities kick off a week later, on Dec. 10.

From mid-August until the December display opens, Ching focuses on the holiday festivities that attract tens of thousands of people each year.

When Ching isn't focused on City Lights, he works on other special events across the island, leading training workshops for aides who work in the popular Summer Fun program, helping with Lei Day, hula programs and other recreational programs.

Ching, 37, admits that he exhausts his zeal for holiday decorating at work. He has been working on some aspect of City Lights since 1991.

"Even the tree we set up at home, my wife does it," Ching said. "I don't decorate my house." He said he thinks about all the things he could do, then realizes, "I'm too exhausted to do that."

He said all the work — meeting deadlines, painting, moving, repairing — gets stressful. But after it's done, he takes time to stroll the grounds quietly and anonymously and see how it turned out.

"I hear how people like it," Ching said. "It makes all the hard work worthwhile."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.