Severson family keep expanding their Christmas lights display

The few lights on a bush outside the house have multiplied at the Severson place.

Who started it?

Theresa points at her father and her father points at her.

“He decided to put up some Christmas lights one year,” Theresa said of her father, Calmer Severson. That was about 10 years ago.

Now, they can’t count the number of strands of lights they put up beginning in mid-October each year.

Decorating the farmyard is a family affair. Theresa is the designer. Brother Todd does the metal fabrication. Calmer does the wood work. Mom Karen is the cook.

The lights come on after the family finishes their Thanksgiving meal and the decorations come down on New Year’s Day, when the family enjoys Karen’s chili.

Todd is blamed or credited, depending on who you ask, for providing the inspiration to expand the few strands of lights into a farmyard filled with figures, dancing trees, carolers, fishing penguins, sliding children, a carousel and Ferris wheel, and a countdown to Christmas É to name a tiny slice of the action.

The Seversons add or change something in the display each year. Some folks can identify the changes right away, Theresa said. Others say their children make them stop every night just to see how many days remain until Christmas.

“Some of them really take an interest,” she said.

“It’s crazy É I don’t know (why we do it),” Calmer said.

“We do it for the kids,” Karen said. “They enjoy it.”