Why do we do it?

I was fortunate to be born and raised in the south which among it's many blessings included me being raised with Christian faith and principles.  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 the lack of snow (a plus and a minus).  We started doing an outdoor 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 the internet.  From that moment, I knew we had to do this.

In 2007, we began our work with the help of other enthusiasts at Planet Christmas (it helps to have other people who are as crazy about something as you are).  After much effort and help from our extended family, we got our display up and the response has been great ever since that day.  We have animated our display using Light-O-Rama.  They provided the software and some of the computer controllers.

In 2007 we started with 40,000 lights, then 72,000 in 2008, 80,000 in 2009, 91,800 in 2014, and now it's more than 100,000.  Due to all the lights, my family has named me Clark (after the character Clark Griswold in the Christmas Vacation movie) and it has become my common nickname.