Lights that unite

Anyone driving down County Road 39 during the holiday season knows Rick Cloutier’s house. It’s the one with tens of thousands of Christmas lights and a display of inflatables in the front yard.

“I popped a lot of breakers when we first started here,” said Cloutier, a Chelsea resident. “We had to add more power to the house.”

Christmas decorating starts in October at the Cloutier house — July if you count the planning and shopping at light and decorations sales. Each year he aims to make the display larger than the last. Cloutier has built up his collection of lights over the years, adding more lawn decorations along the way.

“Doing the Christmas lights, that’s something I really started back when I was in my 20s,” Cloutier said. “I just always had an obsession with Christmas lights. It just morphed through the years, and as I had kids, the tradition just kind of took off to where come November, we start decorating.”

This year, Cloutier’s 17-year-old son, Zach Cloutier, started doing work to program their nearly 30,000 Christmas lights to different holiday songs. The lights are switched on and off by controllers — a new addition to this year’s display — and will go along with the beat of the songs.

Making this addition is “a whole new adventure,” Cloutier said, but ramping up their decorations is a yearly tradition.

When they decided to add the controllers, Cloutier said the community of fellow Christmas light enthusiasts provided tips.

“There’re communities, there’re tons of people who are crazy just like me,” he said. “We have our own Facebook groups. It’s like a community of us crazy light people, and we get on there. If you have problems, they can help.”

With his house situated on the corner of County Road 39 and Alabama 69, Cloutier’s decorations are easily spotted by drivers. The intersection is a high-traffic area, and Cloutier said his main hope is to help spread the holiday spirit and a few smiles. 

Growing up in a single-parent home, Cloutier said he saw the times when trying to meet the hype and expectations around Christmas presents was difficult.

“It can be really, really rough on families trying to do all that,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of people tell me that those bad days kind of go away when they come by. To me, that makes me happy. That gives me a good Christmas.”

Lime Creek resident Casey Morris drives by Cloutier’s house every day and said he is always impressed by the holiday display. Morris’s 4-year-old daughter Alyssa is also impressed.

“I think it’s awesome,” Morris said. “It’s a variety of decorations, ‘Frozen’ characters — that’s what catches Alyssa’s attention. When we drive by, she’ll say, ‘Look, it’s Anna and Elsa.’”

People will stop their cars on the road to say how much they love the lights, Morris said, and he has only heard positive reactions to the display.

“It brings happiness to the people,” Morris said. “It’s hard not to smile when you’re coming through there.”

Cloutier also receives the Clark Griswold Award from his neighbors, he said, which includes a couple of Christmas cookies. Although the sheer magnitude of the display resembles the Griswolds’ home, Cloutier said he takes a few precautions to ensure he doesn’t run into the same lighting issues.

An extravagant lighting display means Cloutier often gets questions about the process and his supplies, but some of the most popular questions are the cost.

“Everyone asks, ‘What’s your power bill do?’” Cloutier said. His response surprises some people, but with a nearly completely LED lighting display, it is cheaper to power his display than it is to run the AC in July.

Buying lights can be costly, but splurging on the LED lights ends up saving him in the long run, Cloutier said. He also strategizes on when he will spend, opting to buy lights at places that hold large Christmas sales during the summer or filling up a few shopping carts in after-Christmas sales.

And when it comes to pulling out the lights to hang, Cloutier is careful to test each strand before it goes up. Then, he’ll fix the ones he can, save the dead strands for parts and move forward.

Avoiding a dead and fully mounted lighting display is easy, Cloutier said — just hang the lights while they’re on and put them on one at a time.

The whole process for his house takes about 70 to 80 hours of work spread over a few weeks to accommodate for his work schedule and his sons’ school schedule. 

“We’ll turn on the Christmas music, although my wife says we’re not allowed to until Dec. 1, and it’s time out, a good time together,” Cloutier said. “It’s a good family activity, like other people have biking or hunting … we’re the Christmas light hanging family.”