A very Rat Fink Christmas

By Robert Stevens

Managing editor

12-13-2019

MANTI—Christmas and car culture mix in Manti thanks to Ilene Roth

Roth runs the Rat Fink Museum. Her late husband was the famous hot rod icon and artist, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. Ed created the edgy hot rod art known by the world as Rat Fink, and Ilene runs a museum in Manti dedicated to the life and work of Ed. Every year thousands of car culture enthusiasts flock to the museum and the annual car show, the Rat Fink Reunion.

This year, Ilene is offering something new for the people who come for a look into Ed’s legacy—some extra Christmas spirit. In honor of their shared loved for Christmastime, Ilene has made it a longtime tradition to keep a year-round Christmas display in a corner of the museum.   This year, for the first time ever she has decked the halls of the museum from front to back.

Ilene placed elaborate, glowing Christmas displays she decorated herself around the museum, each of them with a different theme, but nearly all of them involving a Christmas tree or trees. The isles of the museum glow with faint light from the displays, which  each tend to have their own color or colors illuminating its own corner of the museum.

If you want to check out the festive fruits of Ilene’s efforts, you can still visit the museum Christmas display on its final week from Dec. 16-19, from 5:30-8:30 p.m.