Decorating for me started when my mother Marie started dating my stepfather John Spiegel in 1986. That year would be the first year that I remember ever helping string up the lights. On Thanksgiving Day at my grandmother Mary’s house, after dinner my dad, uncles, and a few of us kids went out to help put the lights up on her house. From then on it was just tradition that on Thanksgiving Day while
everyone else was watching the football games, we’d be out putting up the lights in an effort to have them done that evening. As the years passed and the displays grew, the goal became to have everything up by the end of Thanksgiving weekend and eventually by the first weekend of December. The tradition continued through various apartments or homes and when I went to college, I would even drive down to help my dad and brother, John William, carry on. In 2002 I moved into my first apartment with my then girlfriend, now wife, Megan and made sure that for our first Christmas our windows and patio were lit. Since then, every year we’ve continued to decorate, getting a little bigger each year. We moved into our first home in Highlands Ranch in 2007 and eventually started a Santa’s Zoo theme. In 2013 we moved into our current home and in 2014 we bought our first Star Wars inflatable. From there our Star Wars theme has grown a little more each year as we always try to add a few new items. We typically purchase around $500 or so of new lights and inflatables each year. We used to stick to the tradition of starting to decorate on Thanksgiving Day, but as things have gotten bigger we came to realize that we just needed more time. Now we take down our Halloween decorations on November 1st, put up the little bit of Thanksgiving décor that we have and then start getting lights on the house. We now aim to be done or close to it by Black Friday and in 2021 held our first Black Friday lighting ceremony with our friends and neighbors. For the most part we will use two or three full weekends to get everything done with some things happening here or there during the week. 2020 was actually pretty nice as we were working from home 100% so any down time was spent putting lights up, which helped us get done pretty early. A few years ago, our kids (Joel 14, Xander 12, Mackenzie 8) decided that on some nights they wanted to run a hot cocoa and cider stand which eventually led the family going out in Star Wars costumes on nights that we are home, typically weekends. It’s fun because people come up and take pictures with the family. Cocoa and cider are free, but many people give the kids tips and donations. In 2021 my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, so our kiddos decided to use their hot cocoa money as a way to help fundraise for their grandfather’s treatments and medications. Last holiday season they raised nearly $4,000. Luckily we have some very understanding neighbors who deal with a lot of craziness over the holiday season. On any given night there are limos and party buses that come through along with large lines of cars. It ramps up the closer we get to Christmas day. Speaking of our neighbors, starting in 2022 we actually posed a challenge to our entire neighborhood to decorate with the plan for everyone to walk the Blackbird neighborhood, then email me the number of the house that they believe is the best decorated, excluding ours. We then give the house with the most votes a $100 amazon gift card on Christmas eve. Our home has been shown on several local news stations over the years along with the Denver Post and Highlands Ranch Herald. When Highlands Ranch used to hold their annual lighting contest, we placed in the top 3 several times, winning in 2015. For the past 6 years we’ve been in touch with the producers of ABC’s Great Christmas Light Fight and encouraged to submit our house for casting consideration. While we haven’t been selected, the producers do send along helpful hints and tips and make sure to check in each year. We currently have over 40 inflatables, 20+ tinsel characters & animals and close to 20,000 lights. Our electrical bill more than doubles over the holiday months so it’s a good thing that we installed solar several years ago, though this year it has not yet been re-installed due to the tornado this summer. We'll be biting our lips when we get the bill this year. We actually decorate for all holidays and sporting events. Christmas and Halloween are our largest displays, but we have some for Easter and St Patrick’s day, etc. A lot of people know us as the “Packer house” as we have inflatables and flags for football season. The Christmas lights are on from 5-10pm each night from now until New Year’s night. Come January 2nd we shut them down and start putting everything away until the next year.
