TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Christmas Display At 40,000 Lights And Counting

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

From left: Sandy and her husband Herb Somers and their son Herb Somers II stand in front of their home decorated with over 40,000 lights. Its a hobby, and my enjoyment out of it is watching the kids and the parents enjoy it, said Herb Somers.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: December 24, 2008

SEBRING - "Fabulous."

"Amazing."

Herb Somers often hears those words as people stop in front of his home at 5303 Lakewood Road, about two miles south from Hammock Road, and view his Christmas lights display.

Before he and wife, Sandy, moved to Sebring 20 years ago from Gibraltar, Mich., Somers, 55, was nicknamed "Mr. Christmas" by friends and co-workers because of the light display he put up every year.

He has been adding to his Christmas lighting display every year and now has gone over 40,000 lights.

"It's a hobby, and my enjoyment out of it is watching the kids and the parents enjoy it," he said.

A technician/mechanic at Glade & Grove Supply Co. in Avon Park, Somers took a week's vacation and worked about 100 hours to put the display up.

While Somers does most of the work, he gets plenty of help from Sandy; their son Herb II and his wife, Carolyn; and their daughter Elizabeth Dixon and husband, Brian.

An electrical engineer, Somers II installed a computer controller that synchronizes 16 groups of lights. Next year, he said, he plans to upgrade the controller to 64 channels, which will allow for more special effects.

People who pull up see a sign telling them to tune their radio to 107.9 FM, and when they do, they hear Christmas songs played on Somers' low-power radio station, which broadcasts a few hundred feet.

The radio station plays three songs, "Christmas in Sarajevo" and "Wizards in Winter" by the Trans Siberian Orchestra and "A Christmas Card to You" by the Partridge Family. Somers II said they will be adding more songs, with "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms the next one to join the play list.

The Somerses also have a radio outside playing the music, to accommodate people in golf carts who stop by.

The lighting display is turned on about 6 p.m. and the family runs it till about 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until about midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Somers enjoys putting on his Christmas light display so much he doesn't even think about the added electric cost.

"We don't really notice it much," said Sandy. She said the increased power usage is offset because they spend every night outside on their porch, sitting around a small fire pit, enjoying their lights and the people who stop by.

"We were talking about getting LED lights, which use about one-third the energy," Somers said. "But the cost would be in the thousands of dollars to replace all the bulbs."

Drivers safely pull off the road to see the display, but Somers is hoping to make stopping by more convenient.

"What I'm hoping, if we can afford to, is to put a circle drive in so that people can stop by and pull around," he said.

The display features a 23-foot-high Christmas tree made out of strings of lights, plus the three wise men, Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus, snowmen and snowflakes, Santa and reindeer, icicles and candy canes, snowflakes and polar bears, Santa's elves and toy soldiers, the Grinch and more than a dozen trees filled with strings of lights.

Somers said he doesn't miss the snow at Christmas in his native Michigan.

"I was used to hanging the lights in sub-zero weather," he said. "Now I put them out wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and I don't complain."

Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoky@highlandstoday.com

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT