Joy of Christmas

Posts Tagged ‘Christmas Lights’

A Metro East woman who’s nearly nine months pregnant and whose husband is serving in Iraq says she’s at a loss to explain why she was ordered to take down her house’s Christmas lights or be fined 75 dollars.
Melissa Neitzel was among 32 Bethalto residents who received citations last week as part of the ten-thousand-resident village’s crackdown on so-called “junked-up yards” that violate zoning ordinances.

If residents don’t heed the warnings, the village would clean out the yards and charge the resident.

Bethalto’s mayor says there are local service groups to help people such as Neitzel, who also has a nine-month-old daughter.

The police chief says he doesn’t anticipate fining anyone for Christmas light violations, and that he’s giving residents another month to take down the lights.

The city’s Musical Fountain Committee has decided to take on a Spring Lake Township man’s Christmas light show that attracted tens of thousands of people to his home late last year.

Fountain committee Chairman Roger Jonas said the committee decided Tuesday that it would form a subcommittee to oversee the light display in a location somewhere in Grand Haven. Potential sites have been narrowed down to Harbor Island and Dewey Hill, he said.

“It’s designed to be, through donations, to raise funds for a charity and for the Musical Fountain, and that’s why we felt it belonged under our committee,” Jonas explained.

The display was created by Brad Boyink and operated at his home on Heather Court in Spring Lake Township for the first time last year. He estimates around 60,000 people visited the display between Thanksgiving and the end of the year, and donations in that five-week period resulted in $20,038 that Boyink gave to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan. He said there may be more donations that were made online through the foundation’s Web site, www.wishmich.org.

While the donations made the show a success, the high traffic it brought to Boyink’s neighborhood created a safety problem, and he decided it needed a more public location in 2007. In fact, he closed it a few days early because of the traffic.

“It was getting too dangerous,” he told the Tribune for a Dec. 30 story. “People were crossing the double yellow line on West Spring Lake Road, and we actually had someone drive down the bike path — and there were people on it.”

Boyink has been the technical adviser for Grand Haven’s Musical Fountain since May 2006, and he talked to Jonas about the committee absorbing the Christmas light display.

“It became very apparent that if I wanted to do it again, I would have to move it to another location,” Boyink said Wednesday. “I looked at other area parks, and Grand Haven had the only one I thought would work. … It really needed to be under a city’s control because of the liability issue, having a better location to expand, and it made the most logical choice being under the Musical Fountain Committee because they already deal with (a similar) production.”

Boyink said he is pushing to put the display on Harbor Island. He said adding the light display to Dewey Hill in December would interfere with the giant Nativity Scene, a tradition there since 1964. In addition, the scale of the light show on the hill would have to be greatly enlarged to be viewed from across the river, which Boyink said would be cost prohibitive.

Jonas said having the show on Dewey Hill would give the city a new “major tourist attraction” to promote, and the island location is not part of the Musical Fountain Committee’s dominion.

The next step, Boyink said, is to get approval from City Council. Once that happens, he plans to find corporate sponsors so there is no city money paying for the display’s operation, something both Jonas and Boyink said was essential.

Boyink also plans to keep the display affiliated with the Michigan Make-A-Wish Foundation as a contribution source for the children’s charity.

Building the new display will be expensive, but using commercial-grade lighting can be cost-effective in the long run, Boyink said.

“The first year could cost $50,000 to $70,000 to do it right,” he said.

But Boyink said the higher-grade LED lights he used last year at his home are cheaper to operate than common Christmas lights. He said his electric bill for December, while operating the big light display at this home, was just over $100 — or 20-percent less than December 2005 when he ran a display of giant inflatables.

A video of Boyink’s display from last month is available to download from the Musical Fountain’s Web site: www.ghmfsoftware.com/lights. Boyink said he plans to add new footage of the display to the site this weekend.

The twelve days of Christmas traditionally end on Three Kings Day, January 6th. On Tuesday, February 6th, many homeowners still had not taken down their Christmas lights. They blamed the season’s snowstorms and cold weather. Many homeowners associations have decided to give homeowners a break.

“I was waiting to get a phone call, I’m glad it hasn’t come yet,” said Jeff Hoffmeister. For about a month, he has been procrastinating on packing away his Christmas lights.

He blamed the wild weather. “You know we’ve had a lot of snow here. I just haven’t wanted to get up on the roof yet.”

Mary Anne Miller has also been putting it off. “We have just a couple of wreaths to take down and we left the lights on one of our trees, but because of the snow we couldn’t get to it,” she said.

Fortunately for Hoffmeister and Miller, the Flying Horse Homeowners Association has been patient. “They’ve gotten more snow than other parts of town, without a doubt,” said Chuck Fowler, Flying Horse HOA Manager.

But as the snow melts, that patience is wearing thin. “I’m sure some people are just being lazy about it,” Fowler said.

Hoffmeister said his lights would come down over the weekend. “So if you come back and do a follow up story, you shouldn’t see any lights on the house,” he said.

The Flying Horse HOA uses a January 15th guideline for removing Christmas lights. But it is not a covenant, so on a case by case basis, homeowners have a little more flexibility.

However, the HOA plans to soon send a courtesy letter, strongly recommending homeowners remove those lights within a couple of weeks.

Burrill Lake residents Shane and Pam Roche spend days decorating their home every year for Christmas.

They do it for the fun and to see the smiles on kiddies’ faces.

This year, the couple received an added bonus, and were the winners of the Times Newspaper Up in Lights competition, receiving a $200 Bendigo Bank account from the Milton branch.

“We are so pleased to have won,” Shane said.

“We really didn’t do it to win, we just appreciate seeing our neighbours and children enjoy it.

“Our neighbours always thank us for the effort we go to, and carloads pull up out the front.

“We had a little blond curly haired girl in her pyjamas make her mum get her out of the car to see the display.

“She had her little face peeping through the fence and just looked so cute.

“That is our reward,” he said.

Shane and Pam normally give out lollies to the children and last year bought out GoLo’s Christmas hats and gave them away to the children who come to gape in awe at the magnificent display of lights and activity within their front yard.

“I have added to the display this year,” Shane said.

“I bought a slippery dip from the tip for $5 and spent some time drilling holes and attaching two reindeer to it, making them appear to be sliding down the slippery dip.

“It looks magic at night.

“Seeing the children’s faces is really fantastic,” he said.

The Roches were in Batemans Bay purchasing more Christmas lights when the Times called them to say they were the winners of this year’s Up in Lights competition.

“I think we will save the new lights for next year,” Shane laughed.

As you might be aware, the whole of the front and side elevation of my house was decorated with more than 6,000 Christmas lights to raise money for Leukaemia Research Fund.

I am delighted to inform you that a staggering record total of £2,025 was collected, an increase of some 24 per cent on the previous year.

I would like to sincerely thank Aldenham Social Club, Bond Financial, Godfrey Davis Contract Hire, Lenton Engineering, The Three Compasses pub and Tony The Fish’ Tarsey of The Green Man in Potters Bar for all their stirling work in helping raise such a magnificent sum for this most worthy cause.

Thanks must also go to all members of the public who came and saw the lights and donated monies most generously.

David Press, Radlett

Growing up in Indiana my family celebrated the Christmas season in what, I thought, was the normal way. My family was of German heritage and observed the customs that they (my mother and father) observed all of their lifetime. This included the 12 days of Christmas with Christmas being the first day, not the last. The last day or 12th day, being the Christian festival of Epiphany, the date that, supposedly, the three wise men arrived at the manger to view the baby Jesus.

During this period, my family visited with family and friends, went to their homes to view their decorations, exchanged gifts and devoured Christmas “goodies.” The Christmas lights glowed nightly until that day.

Now I live in Mountain Home, a place recognized by many as a hotbed of Christianity. Many of the homes in my neighborhood were decorated and lighted by Thanksgiving, a lovely sight to behold. But, wait a minute — a few days after Christmas most of the lights had disappeared, and by Epiphany mine were the only lights on in the neighborhood.

I am not a religious person, but I do know the story of Epiphany, and I leave my lights on until that date probably as a remembrance of my childhood. But what of all the good Christians in my neighborhood — what is their reason for extinguishing their Christmas lights before the biblical end of the season?

I don’t understand.

The city’s Musical Fountain Committee has decided to take on a Spring Lake Township man’s Christmas light show that attracted tens of thousands of people to his home late last year.

Fountain committee Chairman Roger Jonas said the committee decided Tuesday that it would form a subcommittee to oversee the light display in a location somewhere in Grand Haven. Potential sites have been narrowed down to Harbor Island and Dewey Hill, he said.

“It’s designed to be, through donations, to raise funds for a charity and for the Musical Fountain, and that’s why we felt it belonged under our committee,” Jonas explained.

The display was created by Brad Boyink and operated at his home on Heather Court in Spring Lake Township for the first time last year. He estimates around 60,000 people visited the display between Thanksgiving and the end of the year, and donations in that five-week period resulted in $20,038 that Boyink gave to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan. He said there may be more donations that were made online through the foundation’s Web site, www.wishmich.org.

While the donations made the show a success, the high traffic it brought to Boyink’s neighborhood created a safety problem, and he decided it needed a more public location in 2007. In fact, he closed it a few days early because of the traffic.

“It was getting too dangerous,” he told the Tribune for a Dec. 30 story. “People were crossing the double yellow line on West Spring Lake Road, and we actually had someone drive down the bike path — and there were people on it.”

Boyink has been the technical adviser for Grand Haven’s Musical Fountain since May 2006, and he talked to Jonas about the committee absorbing the Christmas light display.

“It became very apparent that if I wanted to do it again, I would have to move it to another location,” Boyink said Wednesday. “I looked at other area parks, and Grand Haven had the only one I thought would work. … It really needed to be under a city’s control because of the liability issue, having a better location to expand, and it made the most logical choice being under the Musical Fountain Committee because they already deal with (a similar) production.”

Boyink said he is pushing to put the display on Harbor Island. He said adding the light display to Dewey Hill in December would interfere with the giant Nativity Scene, a tradition there since 1964. In addition, the scale of the light show on the hill would have to be greatly enlarged to be viewed from across the river, which Boyink said would be cost prohibitive.

Jonas said having the show on Dewey Hill would give the city a new “major tourist attraction” to promote, and the island location is not part of the Musical Fountain Committee’s dominion.

The next step, Boyink said, is to get approval from City Council. Once that happens, he plans to find corporate sponsors so there is no city money paying for the display’s operation, something both Jonas and Boyink said was essential.

Boyink also plans to keep the display affiliated with the Michigan Make-A-Wish Foundation as a contribution source for the children’s charity.

Building the new display will be expensive, but using commercial-grade lighting can be cost-effective in the long run, Boyink said.

“The first year could cost $50,000 to $70,000 to do it right,” he said.

But Boyink said the higher-grade LED lights he used last year at his home are cheaper to operate than common Christmas lights. He said his electric bill for December, while operating the big light display at this home, was just over $100 — or 20-percent less than December 2005 when he ran a display of giant inflatables.

A CROXLEY Green resident who adorned his house with 30,000 lights has raised thousands of pounds for two charities.

Dave Edwards, 73, of Lancing Way, and his wife have been covering their house in Christmas lights every year since 1978.

This year the money raised was split between the Peace Hospice, Watford, and ex-footballer Bob Wilson’s Willow Foundation.
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Dave presented a cheque for £1,400 last week.

It was the first year the couple had raised money for the hospice.

They did so in the memory of Peggy Williams, a friend of theirs, who died at the hospice last year.

The lights stay up for about six weeks from the second week of November until the start of January.

Dave said: “We had between 500 and 600 people there on the first night and raised £540 on that night alone.”

There was a children’s disco on the front lawn and children’s entertainers to mark the event.

Dave said: “I think we keep doing it because we like to see the interest and enjoyment on people’s faces. I’ll keep doing it as long as I can climb the ladder.”

The lack of volunteers has created a dilemma for the Festival of Lights Society. This year, the Society had to look beyond the community for help to tear down the decorations and 300,000 Christmas lights that graced the town from Tim Hortons to Coronation Mall.

Under the supervision of a correctional officer, men from the Nanaimo Correctional Centre were in town last Wednesday dismantling lights and untying roof top decorations.

The Society hosted a work part on Sunday, but needed a few volunteers to get on the roofs and dismantle the lights so they could be easily removed on Sunday when the group had access to a couple of bucket trucks.

“This is the first time we’ve had to use this service,” said Duck Paterson with the Society. “There just isn’t enough volunteers. We had a couple men lined up, but they got jobs.”

Nanaimo Correctional Centre is a medium security facility that offers an in-house and community work program. Inmates who are classified a low security risk to the public are encouraged to participate in community work programs such as road side clean-ups.

“We get many requests from the community,” said Bruce Bannerman, spokesperson with B.C. Corrections Branch.

A work crew from the Correctional Centre helped spread gravel for the Kinsmens playground at Transfer beach a few years ago.

“It’s a great way for the men to give back to the community,” said Bannerman. “Works crews vary in size, but all crews are supervised.”

Paterson said he’s happy the Correctional Centre could help. With the lack of community volunteers, he is concerned about putting the lights back up next fall.

Volunteers work hard Sunday taking down thousands of Christmas lights.

In December, my wife and I were going to Sacramento to pickup our daughter from the airport and on the way we passed by Jackson, Sutter Creek, Amador City and Dry Town. It was dark and most of the local businesses had Christmas lights and decorations up. It really made me feel good to be living in this special mountain area this time of year. Small towns have a way of making the holidays very special.

On the way home that evening I also happened to notice the lack of lights and decorations on Wal-Mart and Kmart. The next day driving by Lowe’s I noticed the same thing. It’s pretty sad that the retailers who make the most money and do the most Christmas advertising do nothing to brighten up our community. But the much sadder thing is, it’s not just the Christmas lights.

I never see management or the owners from these “big boxes” helping at the charitable events, don’t see them at the service club meetings, don’t see them at the livestock auction, don’t see them donating their time and money for those in need. I do see the small business owners, you know the same ones with the Christmas lights. The fact is there are businesses and business owner’s who care about the community and those who care about the stockholders.

There is a huge amount of new retail space, including more big boxes, going into our county with very little population growth; I just hope that all the Christmas lights don’t soon disappear.

John Wiens

Jackson

A Christmas lights display featured on the CBS Early Show and right here on KELOLAND News is now lighting up the lives of three children.

Friday afternoon Joe Noe and his family, who live in Crooks, gave the Make-A-Wish Foundation an impressive donation. Even the Noe family was surprised by the size of the check.

Joe Noe and his family found out first hand what lights and music can do during the Christmas season. On Thanksgiving, they turned on their lights and put out a donation box. Their goal was raise five thousand dollars to make one child’s wish come true.

Noe says, “Realistically I really didn’t think we would make it…I thought maybe we can make one thousand or fifteen hundred and help one along.”

But Friday all of the hard work that went into the Crook’s light display paid off to the tune of more than 16-thousand dollars as Noe and his family presented a check to the South Dakota Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Noe says, “I just put on a light show and everybody else came out to see it and it’s not my money it’s their money so I look forward to see what happens with it.”

President and CEO of Make-A-Wish Mary Olinger says, “This was probably the biggest Christmas gift we’ve had in a long time.”

And just like the display, the timing couldn’t have been much better.

Olinger says, “Normally during the winter months we don’t have a big fundraising events at all and when joe came into see us we said sure we’ll do something not even knowing or anticipating that this would be as huge as it is.”

And even eleven months out.. Noe hopes next year’s gift will be even better.

Noe says, “I don’t know how you can start something like this and just stop. If anybody else was out shopping for Christmas lights after Christmas you probably saw me there too loading cases into the cart.”

Noe and the Make-A-Wish Foundation are sitting down Friday afternoon to decide what kinds of wishes the family would like to make come true. Whether it’s a trip to Disney World or a celebrity wish, there’s no doubt he made a lot of children smile over the holiday season..

Christmas decorations are staying up until Easter at one house in Brighton after a ding-dong over fairy lights.

The owner defied the rule to switch off lights by the 12th night of Christmas last weekend after receiving hate mail criticising his taste.

An unsigned Christmas card was sent to businessman Lawrence Whitaker, of Withdean Crescent.

It read: “Congratulations, you have won a prize for erecting the most tawdry and tasteless Christmas lights.

“It really makes the street look like a cheap nightclub strip.”

Neighbours have rallied round and are urging Mr Whitaker to spurn the “old Scrooge” and keep the lights on.

Mr Whitaker, a 55-year-old company director, and his wife put coloured lights in bushes and erected a 6ft artificial palm tree with yellow and green lights outside their detached home.

He said: “I don’t know if it’s the tree that has upset this person but plenty of people have said how much they like it.

“One asked long before Christmas when it was going up because their grandchild saw it last year and liked it so much.

“Neighbours have suggested scorning the critic by keeping the lights on until Palm Sunday, just before Easter.

“I agree that Christmas lights are a matter of taste but I hardly think our lights have turned the street into something out of Las Vegas.”

Mr Whitaker has since taken the lights out of the bushes with the help of his next door neighbours but is leaving the palm tree.

He said: “We got it in Florida a couple of years ago and it has gone up for the past two years.

“When we got the card we did not think too much of it but it is funny and our neighbours thought it was nonsense.”

Neighbour Chrissie Spicer, who lives opposite the Whitakers, said she had no idea who might have sent the card as all the neighbours were friendly.

She said: “Most of the neighbours really enjoy the lights and they are brilliant. We think it is sad that someone had to send an anonymous card criticising what, they say, are tacky decorations.

If they felt that strongly they should have knocked on the door. It is very petty.

“Talking to all the other neighbours, the majority of them enjoy the lights.

“There are lots of other houses in Brighton with far more decorations, which people might perhaps say are tackier.

“At the end of the day it’s a couple of weeks over Christmas and it’s nice to brighten the street up.”

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.”

Mark Ritter is a low-key kind of guy who, when speaking, comes off as a cross between Eeyore the Donkey and Bob Newhart — steady, matter-of-fact and unexcitable.
But one look at his house in Centreville’s Country Club Manor community, and it’s clear that something excites him very much: Christmas. His corner lot at 5700 Claret Place, on the corner of Greymont Drive, is lit up like, well, a Christmas tree — actually, an entire Christmas village!

THIS IS HIS eighth year of decorating, and visitors come from miles around to see this magical masterpiece that features flashing lights set to music and takes some 25,000 LED lights and 350 extension cords to accomplish. And for something that brings joy to many people, Ritter, a network administrator, takes its creation seriously.
“As soon as Christmas is over, I start planning for the next year,” he said. “In March, when other people are thinking about summer, I’m thinking about Christmas. And this year, I’m going to a Christmas trade show in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Aug. 2-4.”
He and wife Marcie have three children, Matt, 15, Michael, 14, and Marissa, 7, and the family’s lived there since 1999. “I always enjoyed going to people’s houses and seeing the Christmas lights when I was a kid,” said Ritter. “The first year, I built a manger scene and had a few lights, and it grew rapidly through the years.”
All year ’round, he purchases decorating items through the Internet — especially e-Bay and www.planetchristmas.com. The latter site is where he found his new lighting system for this year.
“I outline the roof of the house with lights and put them on the bushes and trees,” said Ritter. “And my front, side and corner yards are lined with approximately 110 candles and toy soldiers, about 2 feet high each.”
He uses multicolored, white and red lights, and all the different colors are synchronized to “dance” to different beats of music. The lights are on from 4:30 p.m.-midnight, and the musical light show — which is on every single thing in the yard — runs from 6-9:30 p.m. (It’s available at www.animatedlighting.com).
“I have an FM-radio transmitter broadcasting on 105.7 FM,” explained Ritter. “It only transmits 150-200 feet from the house, but you can tune your radio to that station when the light show is on.”
It plays “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Jingle Bells,” “Carol of the Bells,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and “Linus and Lucy” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Visitors hear the complete songs, and the program lasts about 20 minutes, with a five-minute break between each set of five songs.”
There are also about 100 other Christmas decorations, including a Nativity scene with a choir of 20 angels; lighted plastic figures of Santa Claus, penguins and 20 snowmen; and Santa and his reindeer and sleigh lit up on top of the roof.

IN ADDITION, there are three animated bears skating on a pond, a moving train, an animated Santa, four lighted-fabric snowmen, two elves riding a seesaw and an elf going down a slide. Oh, and don’t miss the 15 Christmas trees made out of rope light or the lighted area featuring gingerbread people, a gingerbread house, candy canes and lollipops.
“I put it up Dec. 2, and it about triples my electric bill to about a thousand bucks a month,” said Ritter. “But I enjoy it and the kids love it, and I love seeing all the kids looking at it. There’s a steady flow of people coming by.”
His wife’s favorite thing is the pond, but he especially likes the 10-foot Christmas tree in the front with red, green and blue lights. Said Ritter: “When it’s synchronized to music, it’s pretty cool.”
He’s also proud of the North Pole scene with some 30 lighted, plastic figures, including Santa, four elves, eight penguins and two polar bears. And the four deer pulling a golden, rope-light sleigh and Santa Claus, near a “Reindeer Crossing” sign also add a special touch.
But that’s not all. Ritter’s rhapsody also features nine, lighted singers in a children’s choir, plus various lit-up cartoon figures such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Snoopy, Tweety Bird and the Tasmanian Devil. And there are seven, holographic, lighted figures from the movie, “Rudolph and the Land of the Misfit Toys,” plus Rudolph and his girlfriend, Clarice.

“IT TAKES 140 hours to put it all up,” said Ritter. “My father-in-law helped this year, and my wife and kids. But my daughter says she’s my biggest helper.”
The whole shebang keeps him busy changing light bulbs and replacing light strings that go out. But he says it still works, even in the rain. The toughest part is “trying to get it done in time,” said Ritter. But his satisfaction comes when he turns on the lights each night.
“When I start getting it out, people drive by to ask when I’m turning on the lights, and it’s pretty cool to hear that,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s also fun and I’m still enjoying it.”

Neighbors and friends of N.C. State Women’s Basketball Coach Kay Yow are making sure her Christmas is merry and bright.

They decorated the tree in her yard Monday night with Christmas lights.

Yow has taken a leave of absence as head coach due to the reoccurrence of breast cancer. The coach says she’s thankful for good friends.

“I know many people are praying for me and I know many people are praying for other people, and I’m praying for other people, and I know there’s power in prayer,” Yow said.

Yow was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987. In November, doctors noticed that the cancer was progressing and Yow announced she would take a leave of absence from the team to focus on her health.

Coach Yow ranks as the fifth winningest active NCAA Division I women’s basketball coach.

Tom Payne knows what the spirit of Christmas is all about.

While most of his friends were tucked away in warm houses, Payne braved the winter winds while stringing Christmas lights across Ceres’ Henry Avenue – a residential street that will soon be alive with hoards of onlookers and lines of visiting cars.

Such is life on Christmas Tree Lane.

Saturday marked the opening night of the 2006 Christmas light season for the handful of residents that spend more time organizing their displays than most people do shopping – starting as early as Thanksgiving with all of the preparation.

“The planning takes months – getting everything figured out on how it’s going to be,” Payne said while testing a new strand of lights. “But when we get everything up and it’s all working it’s worth it – it’s part of the tradition.”

Opting for a new look this season, Payne and his family have taken on a tropical theme – one which includes a Hawaiian shirt clad Santa Claus and pink flamingos that aren’t typically seen in December.

For the last decade they have looked forward to the time of year when thousands of guests from Ceres and beyond make the trek down Henry Avenue and onto Vaughn Way to see one of the most famous lighting displays in the area.

“It’s during events like this that you can really get a feel for the spirit of the community – when everybody pulls together to help one another out,” Cheri Payne said. “We have a great community spirit here in Ceres and I think you can see it in how much work goes into this.”

Up the street second-year home-owner Kym Wood waited with anticipation for the crowds as she tested her numerous front-yard Christmas treats – including an oversized snow globe with moving parts and enough lights to make anybody jealous.

Prior to moving onto Henry, Wood knew of the tradition she would have to be a part of and couldn’t be happier.

“It’s a lot of fun setting everything up and getting into the spirit of the holidays,” Wood said. “We have a lot of great neighbors and a great community here in Ceres that appreciates the work that everybody puts into this event.

“There’s something special about it.”

From now until Christmas Eve there will be a steady stream of cars turning off of Moffet Way and into the entrance of Christmas Tree Lane – at times requiring police to direct the traffic as it backs up to as far away as Hatch Road.

Horse drawn carriages and visits from Santa Claus himself are yearly staples.

But things aren’t all roses for the homeowners who allow their properties to become themed centerpieces – at times putting them in an unfavorable situation with crowds that don’t always respect the work that goes into the displays.

Just off the corner of Callie Gaede’s front driveway a wooden power pole remains blackened after hoodlums set a garbage can on fire last year.

Empty beer cans and whisky bottles can often be found on weekend mornings in front yards and in the back of pickup trucks parked in the driveways.

And occasionally, used diapers are even tossed into the equation.

Tom Gaede grew up on the street that he now lives on just a stone’s throw away from his parents, and doesn’t enjoy the indifference of the crowds – pointing out that once the crowds start rolling through something as simple as turning into your driveway becomes a brutal task.

“If people would just respect the homeowners it wouldn’t be so bad,” Gaede said while searching for a blown fuse in a new strand of lights.

“When people come home from work they are forced to sit there for 10 minutes while these visitors won’t even let them into the driveway.

“That’s just not right.”

Not too many people bring poison into their homes on purpose, but it could be something you’re doing without realizing it. We’re talking about lead and discovered it’s in most christmas lights.

The same coating that keeps the lights fire resistant is filled with lead. If you check out the box your christmas lights came in the warning is clear. The Allen County Health Department is warning not to let young children handle the lights, but says there is an easy solution; a bar of soap and some running water. They say to wash your hands after handling the lights.

Lead poisoning is most harmful to kids under the age of 5, but can lead to mental deficiencies and speech problems in most children.

A SNOW machine, an ice rink with skating snowmen and hundreds of lights are just a few of the Christmas attractions at 16 Elm Close in Huntingdon this year.

The Christmas lights, which are spread across the front garden, were officially switched on by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire presenter Jane Smith and can now be seen from 4.30-10.30pm daily.

The layout of the lights are planned in detail by the homeowner Patricia Allen. It takes her son Anthony, and his step-father Jack Panter, more than four days to put the lights up.

Anthony said: “We just brought a few more lights each year and ended up with this many. Our electricity bill does go up when they switch on the lights but we do it for the kids.”

Inside the garden is a stable containing three reindeers, carol singers that actually sing, Santa and much more.

A new addition to the garden this year is the stable containing Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and some sheep … which, of course, all light up. To protect their Christmas spectacular the family have had to put up high fences around their garden and CCTV cameras after some of their wires were cut in 2004.

Everyone finds inspiration in unlikely places. Travis Collis found his when he watched comedian Chevy Chase’s inept Clark W. Griswold doggedly staple Christmas lights to his roof in the movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

Like Chase’s Griswold, Collis, 26, goes all out when he decorates for Christmas. Unlike Griswold, Collis is so successful that he does it for family and friends, too. His Pisgah Road home, and the nearby homes of his wife Jenny’s grandparents and an aunt and uncle, boasts a total of 150,000 Christmas lights.

And that’s just the beginning. The labor of love’s first steps start in October, but then it gradually grows as Collis adds lights and decorations.

“I do it all myself. My wife will come and give me a cord or some encouraging words, but she mostly lets me do it,” Collis said.

The roof of Collis’s house is home to 5,000 Christmas lights alone. He found the inspiration for this unique extra roofing from Chevy Chase.

“It took about four hours just to do the roof,” he said. “I did buy some hooks to hang them from, but those didn’t work and I just got fed up, and finally used the staple gun. Hopefully it won’t ruin my roof. I’ll be in a lot of trouble, I’m sure, if it starts to leak.”

Getting just the right tree was part of Griswold’s quest for the perfect old-fashioned family Christmas, but the Collis home outdoes the movie’s single tree by a factor of eight. Even the bathroom has its own tree.

“We have eight fully decorated Christmas trees,” Collis said. “In each room, the whole room matches the theme of the tree.”

Christmas decorations are a natural for Collis and his wife Jenny. He manages a Christmas shop in Princeton. Besides this “fits like a glove” professional duty, the Christmas season has an extra depth of significance for the Collis family.

“We had a holiday engagement and a Christmas wedding,” Collis said. He even proposed to Jenny with a Christmas light display.

And the displays are not static.

“We add every year. I’m just waiting for the house to explode. We run into storage obstacles and things like that,” he said. “We’ve had the house totally rewired. An electrician stops by to add a couple of outlets and make sure we don’t blow breakers.”

Besides decorating his own home and nearby houses, Collis will decorate up to 28 Christmas trees for friends and family.

“I’m one of these people who believes the bigger, the better,” he said. The challenge is making the decorations and themes different every year.

“I want it to be totally different every year. When people come in and enjoy it, for people to come and take it all in, that’s what makes it worth it.” And nobody is able to say “I saw that last year.”

Collis said he is very grateful to his wife for allowing him to decorate. But the lights must come down by Jan. 1.

At this time of year, neighborhoods around the Bay Area put on some spectacular light shows.

Inside 76-year-old Bruce Mertz’s house is a maze of electronic panels that run the 42,000 Christmas lights outside his Concord home. This panel runs Santa and his reindeer.

Bruce Mertz, says ” It allows me to check out each individual reindeer head, tail body, legs, this is a cake pan I got from k-mart and I used it to install all the switches.”

The former Air Force electrician is known around these parts as “Mr. Christmas.”

He designs everything from scratch. He figures out what he wants to see, how his characters should move and then he gets to work.

“When I was in the Air Force I had a lot of bosses and I didn’t have too much time for creativity and so when I got out I got all this creativity bottled up so I let it turn it loose,” Mertz said.

He started putting up lights in 1978. Ten years and two bouts of colon cancer later, he got serious.

He said, “I thought, I got a life and I thought I’d do something with my life and that’s when I decided I’m going to do lights.”

Each tiny bulb is hand painted for optimum color. Santa may have his workshop, Mertz has his office, dining room and garage.

“I’ll show you this computer that’s hanging on the wall,” said Bruce Mertz.

The computer runs Archie—a favorite with the children.

He tries one, tries twice, three times the charm, he goes all the way over.

His electronics are archaic and he’s not particularly organized this time of year. But he’s meticulous about his display and updates his collection each year, this year adding a Hollywood theme with a real red carpet.

Mr. Christmas said, “All my viewers are stars. You know what I mean.”

He spends about seven months either putting up or taking down lights.

About 30,000 people come by each year. All this from a man who grew up on a farm that had no electricity.

“If you told me 30 years ago, I was going to be entertaining people I would have said, entertain people? I don’t have any talents,” Mertz said.

He does have talent and it’s expensive. His electric bill is about $700 for this display, and yes-he accepts donations to pay PG&E.

It was Dec. 8 when Arthur Suiter laid eyes and ears on Mason, Ohio, resident Carson Williams’ mind-blowing “Wizards of Winter,” Christmas light show. The show flashed note-by-note to Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s holiday musical storm. [Planet Christmas: The World's Most Extreme Christmas Decorations!]

It was the very next day that Suiter called up Williams and began his Christmas mission to bring such Griswold gold to his own house for the holidays.

You remember Carson Williams house in Mason, Ohio?” Suiter asked. “Well, we are doing that in Chesapeake.”

That is The Christmas Fantasy of Lights 2006: 27,000 lights that get flipped on Thanksgiving night tripping the light fantastic in a way the Tri-State has never seen or heard.

Powered up with control boxes from a Light-O-Rama computer program, the show flashes lights in time to five holiday songs in a dazzling 14-minute show.

There will be a new show every 20 minutes for folks to drive-through with a six-minute break of music-only in between shows.

The light show will be on from 6 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and will be up through Jan. 1.

A former Chesapeake school board member and former president of the fair board in Lawrence County, Suiter said he was swept away with the Mason show.

“I was just fascinated with his show, and I had to do it when I found out nobody locally was doing it,” Suiter said. “I’ve always been involved with projects and community involvement. It was something I wanted to do, and it was a nice little challenge for me. It has turned out pretty nice, and the community is going to like it.”

Unlike the Christmas lights battle royale that breaks out in the holiday movie, “Deck the Halls,” which opens Wednesday with Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito, Suiter had lots of kindred spirits helping him build the lights show.

They include Todd Gilpin, Rob Queen and Jim Thompson, who have helped power up the massive project that takes more than a half of a mile of extension cords.

The show has three Trans-Siberian Orchestra numbers, “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” by Danny Elfman and the Macarena Christmas Song.

“The toughest thing was writing the lights to the music,” Suiter said. “Every note has to be written to the lights, and it has to be in sequence. Once everything started coming together, it really was a lot of fun.”

And Williams, too, in spite of the crush of national exposure, was on board to lend a helping hand.

“Carson has been very helpful,” Suiter said. “He sent me the software, and then I got addicted. I did copy a bit of his stuff. He said it was OK, but we have a lot of things unique to our show.

One thing, Suiter hopes not to duplicate is the traffic problems that closed down Williams’ show last year and which was a deciding factor in moving that show (splashed all over national TV) to downtown to Mason this season.

The location of Suiter’s more secluded home and the fact that he is surrounded by family, should negate some of the issues that Williams’ neighbors had with traffic in Mason last Christmas.

Suiter’s home is located on a city-block long private drive off of Ohio 243 between Chesapeake and Proctorville.

The drive will be two-way, and there is a sign with instructions so that folks can turn on their radios to hear the music show.

“Once you get up to the top of the hill there is plenty of room to turnaround,” Suiter said.

The Christmas story of 2005 was Carson Williams’ computer controlled Christmas display set to music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. You can see the original video here plus Miller Beer did a Lites commercial. Being a Christmas Lights guy myself, I had dozens of people Email this video to me. So I’ve seen (and listened) to this awesome production a bazillion times, but always on the computer. [The Best Christmas Decorations in Chicagoland]

Carson Williams was hired to put together the “Symphony in Lights” for the Northfield Stapleton shopping Mall which is about 35 minutes away … so I was excited to actually finally see it in person. My family went down there for the opening ceremony on Saturday, November 18th and it was a heck of a treat. These pictures capture less than half of the 250,000 lights … and (of course), don’t show the motion nor the christmas music. There was also some giant lighted stick figures that towered over the crowd – very cool.

I happened to see Carson being interviewed by FOX News so had the chance to say hello to him. I’m sure he was incredibly busy, but he took the time to graciously chat briefly with me and other people as can be seen below. One interesting tidbit I heard him mention is that the 250,000 lights were all LED’s which are more energy efficient – nice touch!

While it’s cool that one can use the Internet to view Christmas Decorations, and heck, even turn Christmas Lights on & off from your PC, nothing beats seeing (and hearing) something live in person. The shows runs nightly through Christmas, so consider a family outing to check it out – highly recommended!

I have a webpage of the Carson Williams show and high-res pictures are available upon request.

P.S. Also highly recommended is a Christmas Lights display in Broomfield on Telluride just North of 136th. People say my 26,000 Christmas Lights in 2005 were pretty good – they don’t hold a candle in terms of quality and quantity to what Norm and Karen Vaught have done the last 15 years with their house – trust me, you’ll be glad you checked it out – WOW!

AROUND 17,000 people braved Glasgow’s wild weather last night to be at George Square’s Christmas lights switch-on.

Thousands of families stood in the wind and lashing rain as the city was transformed into a festive wonderland, the illuminations sending a warm glow of light over the huddled masses.

Children were transfixed as fireworks streaked above the City Chambers for 15 minutes to a sound-track of Christmas hits.

Lord Provost Liz Cameron and Switch-On competition winner Louis Feighan, 10, of Condoratt, Cumbernauld, threw the switch after a countdown.

The Lord Provost said: “Glaswegians weren’t about to let some rain spoil the lights switch-on.

“The lights look spectacular and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I had a great time.”

The number attending was down on the 22,000 who turned out last year after tickets were restricted.

However, there was something for everyone on the night, from a Gaelic choir, to a Bollywood extravaganza.

There was also music from the indie-rock band the Hazey Janes and Clyde One DJ George Bowie blasted chart hits and Christmas songs into George Square throughout the event.

Jackie Simpson, 34, watched the switch-on with sons Jamie, 4, and Kieran, 6.

Support worker Jackie, of Motherwell, said: “It’s always great fun. I did consider missing this year as the weather was so bad, but I knew Jamie and Kieran would be disappointed.”

Another parent who braved the rain for his children’s wishes was Dr Jonathan Patterson, 45, of Shawlands. Sheltering son Hugh, 3, and daughter Hannah, 8, from the rain, he said: “We are all soaked but we enjoyed it anyway.

“The only criticism I have is that there should have been more than one entrance to the square as those coming off the trains at Queen Street and Central Stations had to walk to the opposite side of the square.”

“I got a candy cane and a ribbon,” Kai Higg said happily, showing off his loot from the Island Farms Santa’s Light Parade yesterday evening.

Then the four-year-old waved good-bye to the big guy in the funny red suit who was heading down Government Street stuck in a chimney. Only five weeks until Christmas. Only five weeks until Santa returns with his toy jet plane, said Higg, his cheeks red from the cold, his eyes shining with expectation.

If the parade ended on the right note for the little boy, it began on a hopeful note for Rev. Tom Oshiro, pastor of the Mustard Seed Street Ministry.

Oshiro and a group of young volunteers led the parade, gathering bags of food from spectators lining Government Street and placing the groceries in a white cube van decorated with Christmas lights.

“This is one of the best parades I’ve ever seen,” said Oshiro. “I feel we have a crowd who’s really prepared to give and I see they’ve brought the groceries. And right now we need them. We really need them. Our Christmas drive is the key to the future.”

Experienced Victoria onlookers turned out with their lawn chairs, their blankets and their children bundled into strollers to see Victoria’s festive start to the Christmas season.

The night was cold and dry and the lights of the Parliament buildings provided the perfect backdrop to what might have been the biggest Santa Claus parade.

“What a night,” said parade chairman Ron Butlin. “There were 40,000 to 45,000 people out there. They were standing four and five deep along the parade route.”

Irish dancers held their arms stiffly at their sides as they hopped and jumped down the parade route. Row upon row of tap dancers, strutted their stuff, inviting smiles and applause from spectators.

“Oh sweet,” said a youngster, pointing to a remote controlled car racing between the float.

There were clowns and unicycles, vintage firetrucks and police cars and a pipe band droning Jingle Bells. And there were fistfuls of candy canes.

“They love it when the candy comes flying out of the truck,” said Dan Madison, a father of five who watched the parade with two-year-old Helena on his shoulders. “They get a little bit of road rash.”

Pat Doan, who moved from Moose Jaw last year, loved the parade and the relative warmth of Victoria.

“I like the lights and seeing the kids, their expressions. It’s what Christmas is all about.”

Downtown Nacogdoches was set aglow with Christmas lights Saturday night, kicking off the holiday season. The ante was upped from last year’s 2 million lights to more than three million lights twinkling downtown this year. [Planet Christmas: The World's Most Extreme Christmas Decorations!]

The lighting ceremony begins the 10th annual Nine Flags Festival, which honors the diverse cultures of the nine flags that have flown over Nacogdoches throughout history.

Among the many activities at the festival Saturday were live entertainment, vendor booths, carriage rides, train rides, face painting and games. Santa was also downtown preparing his list and taking pictures with children.

The Sterne-Hoya House Museum offered guided tours led by guides dressed in period costumes. DIGIKIDS offered free child safety CDs at the Main Street fire station.

But the main event came when the three million lights were switched on.

The brick streets of downtown sparkled with the luminous glow and warm feel of the holiday season.

Although, it seems as if it all happens with just the flip of a switch, there is a lot that goes into setting up the many lights downtown.

“A lot of work went into all this,” Erin Drago, special events coordinator of the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, said. “We started preparing for this about two months ago.”

Most people get frustrated with untangling their Christmas lights at home, just imagine the work that goes into more than three million lights.

“It took many hours and volunteers to get it all done,” Sherri Skeeters, lighting ceremony chairwoman, said. “There weren’t any real complications, just normal troubleshooting and changing strands. We had to order more lights this year.”

Immediately after the lights, Nacogdoches was treated to a fireworks display that warmed the cool night air — a perfect beginning to the holidays.

The lighting ceremony was sponsored by Commercial Bank of Texas, KTRE-TV and Clear Channel Communications.