Tis the Season! - 35,000 lights as of 12/19/12

[Barnyard]

It's once again time for me to go to the barn and drag out all the Christmas decorations and toss 'em in the yard and see how they land. So far I have a whopping 6,000 lights glimmering out there. I better get to work. This is probably my favorite time of the year.

[Bob McCarty]

Bill, I bet it's your electric company's favorite time of the year too.

Bob

[Dale Shaw]

I am a Bah Humbug. I could do without the hype till about the 20th. Celebrate the Reason and have it all packed up by the first.

[Barnyard]

Bill, I bet it's your electric company's favorite time of the year too.

Bob

Yeah, and they don't even send a thank you card!

We have been doing this for over twenty years and keep getting bigger every year. The pine tree in our front yard started as a sapling Melissa planted twenty two years ago when she was six years old. About four years later we decorated it and we had 35 bulbs on it. It was about three feet tall then. When we moved eight years ago we brought the tree along. It was about 16 feet tall then. Today it is about 25 feet tal, holds about 1,200 lights and I need the bucket lift to reach the top. The entire display starts near the road at one end of my drive and ends at the other road where the drive exits. Hopefully I will get over 30,000 lights up this year.

We have people drive through all the time or just stop in the road to look. The kids really love it and some of the parents have told me they drive twenty miles or more to bring their kids every year. Some of my neighbors have said I should put a donation box in the driveway to help with the cost, but I refuse to do that. This is my contribution to them. I do this for the kids and adults who come out to see it and as long as they enjoy it, and I am able to do it, It will continue to be a community tradition.

Around here we spend more than a few days enjoying the Christmas season.


That star is twenty feet in the air on the side of the barn.


The star itself is eight feet tall.




It was a bit cold last year when I put it together. Today is supposed to be 51 degrees.

More at http://www.lightupcrosby.com.

[Rudi]

Bill:

Your Christmas decorations are always a joy to see even if all we can do is see them via the internet. Must be a heck of a show in person. Keep decorating

[Barnyard]

Bill:

Your Christmas decorations are always a joy to see even if all we can do is see them via the internet. Must be a heck of a show in person. Keep decorating

Rudi, I think the adults like them as much as the kids. It brings the kid out in a lot of moms and dads. Some of the cars that go through the drive stop and talk if they see me out. A lot of times there are no kids with them. I get anonymous Christmas cards stuck in my mail box at night with hand written thank you's saying they appreciate seeing the neighborhood looking nice. It sure beats looking at run down areas where nobody cares.

This afternoon, while decorationg the oak tree, I heard someone holler from the street. When I looked back I saw it was the mail lady sitting at my mail box. She yelled out that it was about time I got started. They all look forward to it and I won't let them down if I can help it.

[birddog]

"Yay" for you Bill. With our's and our youngest daughter next door we should be around 27000 lights this year. People were asking the wife last week when the lights would be on so they could make plans.

[VinceD]

Bill, add just a few more lights and we should be able to see the glow from the Ozarks.

Keep up the good work!!!

[Rudi]

We don't do that many lights ... we are somewhere around 1,000 or so I guess. Most of the last decade we have been kinda trying to replace the older stuff. Em has been looking though and I have a feeling we might be getting a little bigger next year.

And yeah, the lights are as much for the adults as the kids. Some body has to be keeper of the holiday spirit -- so it may as well be those of us who still have our younger selves inside and know it. I am glad you are the keeper of the holiday spirit in Harrison

[sdurnal]

Decorations in place @ work, complete with a "nice" list. Didn't find my name yet...but there's still hope... hehe

[Don McCombs]

I think I recognize the wise man in the Carhartts.

[Barnyard]

I think I recognize the wise man in the Carhartts.

Yeah, he's the one who road in on a Cub bearing gifts of tractor steps and front receivers.

[cubguy47]

how many hours does it take you to put this all up Bill? Very impressive.

[Barnyard]

how many hours does it take you to put this all up Bill? Very impressive.

It takes about 60 hours to put together. A lot of that is planning and figuring out the lay out for the year. I don't mess around checking for bad bulbs either. If a strand does not light I look for obvious problems like a missing or dicolored bulb. If it goes beyond that I put up a new strand. At a buck a box after Christmas and about 15 or 20 new boxes a year, I am saving myself a headache.

I miscalculated the pine tree this year. I thought it was about 25 feet tall. Once I dropped the tape to the ground it came in at 32 feet and inches.

[Rudi]

Sure wish I could afford one of them blue things and maybe a slightly bigger red thing to pull it with. Be a lot easier putting lights up and other chores