Do you and your family decorate for Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween or other holidays? Do people in your neighborhood?
Is there a house where you live that goes all out for the holidays? Do you find the decorations beautiful and festive — or ridiculous and over the top?
In “‘Are You Going to Be the One to Get Rid of Santa?’” Ronda Kaysen writes about one such home. It holds a world record for having the most lights on a residential property, to the dismay of some neighbors and the delight of others:
On a winding country road, four miles from the nearest traffic light in rural Dutchess County, N.Y., the holiday lights appear like a carnival fun house shattering the darkness.
Every year, roughly 60,000 visitors stream into Union Vale, dwarfing the population of the town of 4,600, their cars crawling up the wooded, unlit roads to take a slow tour around the circular driveway of Timothy and Grace Gay, the Guinness World Records holders for the most lights on a residential property.
This year, 720,420 lights created the vibrating, pulsating cacophony, set to a soundtrack that plays over a local radio frequency, the colors changing with each of the 255 programmed songs. Giant globes, hearts, shooting stars and rainbows suspend over a pond, the reflection giving the illusion that this homespun creation is descending into the earth. If lights could speak, they would shout out the block letter words of one sign: “Top That.”
“It’s amazing, it’s absolutely amazing,” said Lauren Bellantoni, 37, as her car inched through the loop, an unending line behind her.
For the fans, the lights are supersized holiday cheer. For the critics, it’s a holiday nightmare.
“It’s essentially running a Legoland out of your property for 40 days,” said Edward J. Kasche, a middle school social studies teacher who was partly inspired to run for a seat on the town board because of his long frustration with what he describes as a lax municipal response to the show. Mr. Kasche, 41, lost the November election, drawing 15 percent of the vote.
On the busiest nights, the line of vehicles can stretch close to a mile or farther in this town an hour and a half north of New York City.
