December decisions can be important ones. When you’re talking about an all-out effort to brighten the neighborhood, the weighty questions loom.
All-white bulbs or multi-colored?
Cool colors from flashing LED displays or large stationary bulbs?
You get the drift? Not that the snow has actually arrived yet on this first day of winter.
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As technology increases, arguments and questions get more complex.
How about some animation this year?
Will projection equipment break down if it rains or snows too much?
What’s wrong with having huge inflatables in the front yard?
In such debates, there are no clear winners or losers. Since beauty has always been — and will be — in the eye of the beholder, there is no aesthetically right or wrong way to put up holiday lights.
Four families responded to The Republic’s invitation to show us that holiday light displays. While they each utilized significantly different approaches, each example seems to admirably reflect the spirit of the holidays in both unique and joyous ways.
1463 Brookside Drive, Columbus
When he was just a child, Billy Crase’s father would pile the entire family into the car and taken them on a drive to look at the outdoor Christmas decorations around Columbus.
At that time a half-century ago, one of the most popular neighborhoods to see holiday lights was the Sandy Hook subdivision, Crase said.
“My mom really loved that,” the Columbus man recalled. “And I kept saying to myself that someday, I’m going to have my own display.”
For the past 15 years, Crase and his wife, Carla, have seen their holiday decorations get larger and larger each December outside their home on Brookside Drive, just north of Deaver Road and east of Interstate 65.
So how does this happen?
It’s difficult to walk through local retail stores, check out the newest outdoor decorations for sale, and not start thinking about how good a new decoration would look next to an existing display, Billy Crase said.
Now retired from Rumpke Waste and Recycling, Crase begins to put up his decorations on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
The entire project usually stretches into two consecutive 10-hour days of hanging string lights from the gutters, as well as fastening them around the windows, front door and garage. If the weather is lousy on one of those day, the work isn’t completed until Sunday.
Retired from the U.S. Postal Service, Carla Crase said it’s not only her job to occasionally check on her husband’s welfare, but to also encourage him with ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ as he plugs in a display for the first time in a holiday season.
Carla Crase remembers that while she was growing up, her father only used blue Christmas lights to illuminate the family farm. But today, both she and her husband prefer to display only white lights that are both beautiful and uplifting, especially when they are reflected by snow on the ground.
If you are looking just at the strands vertically hung like icicles at the home on Brookside Drive, the Crases believe they have about 12,000 lights.
But start counting the lights on the exterior decorations like the sleigh, Christmas gifts, deer and angel in the front yard — and the total number of lights goes up to about 15,000, Billy Crase said.
58 Nelson Ridge Road, Columbus
For the Davis family in western Bartholomew County, holiday decorating is truly a family affair.
For more than 20 years, putting up exterior Christmas lights is a tradition that Scott and Jame Davis have shared with their son, Corey, and daughter Shelby.
Their home is just north of State Road 46 near the Bartholomew-Brown County line.
Not only did the kids enjoy assembling and erecting the decorations, but their help was also essential because both parents have demanding careers that keep them busy. The father is a technical account manager for Hoeganaes Corp., while the mother is office manager of South Central Oral Surgery in Bloomington.
But just as the leaves begin to turn in early October, the couple and their children will begin putting up their holiday decorations, and keep adding whenever time and conditions allow until everything is up by Thanksgiving, Scott Davis said.
With “Merry Christmas” and the family’s name prominently displayed in the front yard, there are a multitude of different illuminations such as Santa Claus, reindeer, a toy train, snowmen — and even the illusion of a waterfall going over a cliff.
Of course, kids never remain kids for very long. Today, Corey Davis is a 25-year-old sports marketing specialist in West Lafayette. But rather than miss the family tradition, Corey decided to bring his girlfriend, Bailey, with him to his parents’ house this year to set up the decorations.
Shelby, 22, who just graduated from college, is enjoying some holiday time with parents and hometown friends before beginning a new job with an events and planning firm in Indianapolis next month, her father said.
Like many families, the Davis family originally started their exterior Christmas illuminations with some bushes and a few poles, but wound up adding a little more every year — largely due to the influence of the kids, Scott Davis said.
Today, he estimates that the family displays tens of thousands of lights on their property.
“We tried to cut back once, but it just didn’t happen,” Scott Davis said. “It’s just so much fun to see the neighbors drive by, and hear the compliments.”
2511 Woodland Farms Drive, Columbus
Often, it’s the husband who is the driving force for putting up elaborate exterior light display. But not at the home of John and Jean Coffman.
A sales representative for AstraZeneca, Jean Coffman admits she’s the main advocate of outside holiday illumination in her home, near W. 200S and just west of Interstate 65 on the west side of Columbus.
“I love the Christmas holiday,” Jean Coffman said. “It is a joyous time to spend with the family and celebrate the birth of Jesus.”
This will be the fourth consecutive Christmas that the Coffmans have elaborately decorated their home in the Woodland Farms subdivision.
The sophistication of these lighting displays serve as a good indication that John Coffman is a director of engineering within Cummins Aftertreatment division (CES).
While the wife says she would prefer getting to work on the holiday decorations right after Halloween, Jean Coffman says he follows the lead of her husband and wait until Thanksgiving.
In exchange, John Coffman makes sure his wife doesn’t do anything that might endanger her welfare, she said.
“John helps me a lot because he does not like me climbing the ladder,” Jean Coffman said.
The couple also receive assistance from their two children. Parker Coffman, 16, is a sophomore at Columbus East High School while Chase Coffman, 14, is an eighth grader at Central Middle School.
The holiday decorating usually begins inside the house the week before Thanksgiving, Jean Coffman said. If the weather cooperates, the exterior displays go up in less than a week.
“We do a little at a time each day, but the decorating is usually completed the Monday or Tuesday after Thanksgiving,” she said.
While the outside looks great, there are also six decorated Christmas trees inside the residence, Jean Coffman said.
“It brightens up the house and makes everything look so festive,” she said. “We have a Christmas party each year and it’s fun to have our friends over and enjoy the decorations too.”
While Coffman said she has no idea how many bulbs her family uses, she believes the shape of her house compliments the use of exterior outside lighting.
“I don’t think it’s overboard,” she said. “It just looks and appears to be the right amount of lights and colors for our home.”
6831 S. County Road 460W, Letts
One of the largest areas of outdoor holiday decorations can be found outside the home of John and Christina Newby on South Mill Street (County Road 460W) in the town of Letts.
As you look on the left side of the house from the road, you can see wire frame silhouette Christmas decorations that create a panoramic nativity scene spread deep across the large yard just east of the Bartholomew-Decatur County line.
Plenty of other illuminated decorations can be seen on the right side of the lawn, as well as on the house and detached garage area. The displays represent holiday items that include candy canes, snow globes, presents, elves, holiday carolers — and even classic automobiles and trucks.
Due to his expertise as an electrical engineer, John Newby has been able to utilize computerized state-of-the-art equipment to synchronize the flashing exterior lights, as well as add additional effects, during the seven years that he’s been putting up these outdoor displays.
But Newby said he leaves many creative decisions to his wife, Christina, a professional photographer, as well as their three sons who are all involved in the South Decatur school systems.
The oldest son, Trever, 14, and his 12-year-old twin brothers, Parker and Conner, are all allowed to make a number of key decisions regarding the displays.
Newby actually begins to think about his holiday light display in April. That’s when many corporations who manufacture synchronized and mechanical devices for holiday decorations offer big discounts, he said.
During the summer months, the electrician can often be found either building or renovating his decorations. The day after Halloween, the five members of the Newby family begin to put up their decorations, with the goal of have everything up by Thanksgiving Day, Newby said.
After adding additional displays this year, Newby estimates his property will feature about 50,000 lights spread across the large yard and two buildings.
In contrast, an online trivia source states the fictional Griswold family only had about half that number of lights in the 1989 film “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
