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The Melkonian family's holiday joy was suddenly deflated on New Year's Day.

Their front yard on Newbury Road in Damascus traditionally overflows each winter with a posse of illuminated inflatables. The blow-up Christmas figures, including a band of playful penguins, Scooby Doo and reindeer aboard a sleigh, turned their house into a holiday attraction for the neighborhood.

"People love them," said Darlene Melkonian, a mother of three who collected the characters with her husband David. "People come up to the house and slow down. Kids will come out and take pictures."

Sometime before 10:45 p.m. Jan. 1, a vandal used the untwisted hook of a wire hanger to deflate 12 of the 14 lawn decorations the family had collected during the past decade to mark major moments in their history.

"Some of them are totally destroyed — slit from top to bottom," Darlene Melkonian said. "On others, the cuts were smaller. They slit the necks of Mr. and Mrs. Claus. The necks of the toy soldiers were slit."

She found the mangled hanger inside a deflated M&M character.

Melkonian and her husband put a lot of time and heart into the collection, she said adding one or two items each year. For Christmas 2010, they debuted a Santa stepping out of an RV to commemorate a trip they took out west in June.

The decorations cost about $100 each on average, but the family has picked up some on clearance after the holidays, Melkonian said.

She filed a police report Jan. 3.

It's difficult to estimate how often such Grinch-like behavior occurs, according to Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Lucille Baur. The department's countywide crime analysis section does not track vandalism cases.

After contacting analysts based at each of the county's six police districts, Baur found just one other reported instance this holiday season, she said.

A homeowner reported that Christmas light cords were cut at Pontiac Way in Gaithersburg between Dec. 11 and 13.

But that might not be all. Officers have 30 days after an incident is reported to log their report, Baur said.

"We wouldn't necessarily have received reports on these crimes at this point," she said. "If there were a serious situation, we would respond. Holiday decorations can be targeted for vandalism, but fortunately this year there have been very few reports."

News of the destruction at the Melkonian house spread over Facebook in updates sent out by Darlene.

One friend, Tracy Westbrook, lamented the loss of what she calls the "Melkonian Winter Wonderland." She drove her three youngest children to see the display two weeks before the slashings, Westbrook said.

"I've known the Melkonians for well over 10 years, so we've been able to see the display grow over time," she said. "Dave just really enjoyed it. He liked doing it for his kids and he liked doing it for other kids as well. It took a lot of heart."

The crime will not deter the family from continuing to spread holiday cheer, Melkonian said.

"Dave has already gone out and bought three new [inflatables]," she said. "We may not have 14 on the lawn next year, but we will have three."

dgaines@gazette.net