As a southerner, I was born and raised in the Baptist church here in the bible belt.  I was always taught to love Christmas for the original reason, which is the birth of Jesus Christ.

We live in Jacksonville, Florida which is located in Northeast Florida.  We have a very mild winter, which allows for somewhat easier holiday decorating outside due to no snow (a plus and a minus).  We started our display in 1997 with lights on the house and in the shrubs.  We added yard art to the display year by year.  In 2006, I noticed several animated Christmas displays on television and on certain web sites.  From that moment, I knew we had to do this.

In 2007 we began our work with the help of other enthusiasts at PlanetChristmas.com (it helps to have other people who are as crazy about something as you are).  After much effort and help from family, we got our display up and the response was great.  We have animated our display using Light-O-Rama.  They provided the software and the computer controllers.  We had about 40,000 lights in 2007.  My family has now named me Clark (after the character Clark Griswald in the Christmas Vacation Movie) and it has become my common nickname.

The lights for 2008 will be on Thanksgiving night, November 27, 2008.

Clark checking his lights and music