At the intersection of Coggin Avenue 16th Street sits a display of Christmas Lights that would make Clark Griswold from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation fame envious.
The residence of Richard and Cassie Delgado has featured an expansion of their Christmas decorations during each of the seven years they’ve lived in their home, with this year’s display eclipsing 12,000 lights.
“It’s hard to give an exact number, but we’ve come up with roughly between 12,000 and 13,000,” Richard Delgado said. “It started out as icicles on the house and it just went from there. We covered the roof the next year, then we covered the brick. The next year we turned the 20-foot flag pole into a tree, and this year we added the lights in the yard.”
Delgado credited the reaction of his oldest son the first year the family put up lights to the growth of the project.
“Our son got real tickled about it, we enjoyed the reaction, obviously, and we just kept adding to it and here we are seven years later,” Delgado said. “There’s still some room on the house, but we’re looking for places to put lights. We’re going to have switch the decorations before too long.”
The Delgados now have three children who enjoy, and help with, the display in their own way.
“Our oldest is 9and I have him on the roof helping me,” Delgado said. “We have one that’s 3 and he just kind of tangles them up in the corner as we’re digging them out of the box, and our youngest is just five months so he just gets to look.”
Delgado stated the planning for Christmas 2021 will begin as soon as Christmas passes this year.
“Every year we add something when the lights go on clearance,” Delgado said. “We’ll purchase this year whatever we’ll add for next year. It’s just something we do, that way we’re not spending an arm and a leg on lights and we’re able to add a substantial amount.”
The lights on the house, in the yard and attached to the flagpole are all in sync, which Delgado says is the most challenging aspect of the display.
“The way it works is kind of a pain,” Delgado said with a laugh. “Every strand has to be plugged in individually and they all have to be turned on at the same time in order to get the effect. If I just plugged them in end to end, it wouldn’t give me that effect. Each strand of lights has a show that it does, you can turn the whole house red, green, blue, whatever color you can think of. But you have to stay true to the brand you’re buying, and that’s the hard part – finding the same stuff that you have to match the previous year.”
Regarding how he manipulates the lights, Delgado said, “I control them with my phone. It’s not a big computer program show, it’s simpler. It’s an effect of the lights and there’s hundreds of different effects I can do, I just haven’t played with them this year. We found a good one and left it. Then on Christmas we just do red, green and blue.”
Delgado added the family gets a kick out the response the display receives from passersby.
“We get tickled at how many people just drive by and stop and you can hear them out there giggling and laughing, and you hear the ohs and ahs,” Delgado said. “They’ll honk and if we’re out in the yard they’ll tell us we did an awesome job. It’s an awesome feeling and it’s good to know people are actually getting out and looking at lights like they used to.”
As the Delgados have added to their display, they’ve noticed more lights popping up in the area, which they welcome.
“More and more people are putting lights up, so it’s peer pressure for your neighborhood” Delgado said with a laugh. “The street is starting to fill up and everybody’s doing an excellent job with whatever they’re putting up. Even if you put up one strand it’s an attempt and it gives somebody something to look at.”
