By Ethan Varian

Correspondent

Every year in December, North Hills resident Brian Welch receives a batch of holidays cards from strangers thanking him for bringing a bit of joy to the neighborhood.

“Thank you for another year of smiles to lighten up our hectic world,” one reads.

While the well-wishers may not know Welch personally, they can’t miss his handiwork: a 12-foot-high ivy hedge trimmed in the shape of a giant poodle.

The ivy poodle, which Welch calls Fido, resides at the corner of Hayvenhurst Avenue and Plummer Street next to Bull Creek. Around the holidays, it transforms into a reindeer—donning a red nose, antlers and multi-colored Christmas lights.

“This year we added more lights so it really pops,” said Welch.

Welch began trimming the poodle over 30 years ago when an ivy bush started to grow up a telephone pole and next to his home. The poodle quickly became something of a local celebrity. It’s been the subject of numerous newspaper stories, internet blogs and even a TV bit for the Discovery Channel.

Welch, 74, is a retired contractor who moved to the Los Angeles area from England when he was 21. He had originally planned to open a hairdressing salon in Santa Monica after completing barber college in England. But the plan fell through when Welch’s business partner went back to the U.K. because his girlfriend decided she didn’t like living in California.

He later moved to North Hills to raise his family. His two sons Mark, 36, and Andrew, 32, help him decorate the poodle for the holidays. About five years ago they added the reindeer decorations, fashioning the antlers out of Styrofoam and canvas material.

“We turn him into a reindeer instead of dog,” said Welch. “He’s a dog with an identity crisis!”

In 1987, Welch received a notice from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ordering him to take down the decorations and remove the hedge. He ignored the warning and said he hasn’t heard from the utility since.

“It’s not my property,” he said. “It’s on city property, they can come and cut it down.”

Welch said he plans to keep trimming and decorating the poodle for as long as the telephone pole can handle the weight.

This year, he hopes the decorations give comfort to families affected by the local wildfires.

“Just putting a smile on people’s faces, that’s the whole idea,” he said.