These Sask. Christmas fanatics are putting Clark Griswold to shame

After looking up to Clark Griswold for years, Trevor Allen’s light display now has more than twice as many bulbs as the home featured in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

“I always wanted to have the house that was lit up for the whole neighbourhood to see,” Allen said. “It was always a dream.”

In the classic Christmas movie, Griswold said he has 25,000 lights decorating his homw. But Allen, the operator of the display in Regina known as the Allen Family Lights, said he has about 70,000 bulbs shining in his front yard this year. Allen has poured thousands of dollars and many hours of labour into the light display at his home at 5140 Genereux Drive.

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“I spent years of planning before I even put up the first light, and then once I put up a few things to try it out,” Allen said. “It just kind of blew up from there, and I just went hard and did the whole house.”

Allen said the lights always look better reflecting off the white snow. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

Allen starts putting together the light display in August, sequencing the lights to a Christmas soundtrack he’s mixed himself.

“It’s a crazy show to watch, because there’s the way the lights move and they dance around,” he said.

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Allen said all the time he spends assembling the show makes is worth it when crowds of hundred come to see the show during the Christmas season.

“The reaction is why I do it,” he said “It’s amazing to be able to watch people outside dancing and singing to the music, and everybody has smiles on their faces.”

Burant starts his set-up on Nov. 1. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

Across the city, Terry Burant’s home is also lit up like a scene from Christmas Vacation, matching Griswold’s effort with 25,000 lights.

“There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes,” said Burant, who started stringing up lights on November 1 at his home at 3414 Phaneuf Crescent in Regina.

It takes a lot of different skills to complete the light display, Burant explained. He’s welded props together, used 3D printing, and also mixed the music for his sequenced show.

Burant said he’s always loved Christmas, and will often have a holiday movie playing in the garage while he works.

Trevor Allen has been putting on light shows for the past eight years, but the planning for the display started years before he made his first prop. (Allen Family Lights/Facebook)

“You’re always thinking about what you can add for the for the upcoming season,” he said.

A big hit at his display is a candy cane dispenser he created, letting people to enjoy a Christmas treat while watching the show. Each year all the donations Burant gets go towards the Canadian Cancer Society.

Every Christmas season, he said he sees lots of familiar faces returning to his neighbourhood.

“It becomes part of their family Christmas tradition to to come by and see us every year,” he said.