MIDLAND - Santa definitely wont forget to stop at 5600 Ashwood Court in Midland. Their light display has over 57,000 lights! It took Ricky Thames over 250 hours to build new decorations and over 120 hours to put everything up.
"This year, I started September 21, the day I walked out of the garage and put up the first string of lights on the house," Thames said.
Ricky has been creating his own Christmas wonderland for 16 years and for the past seven years the family has been collecting donations for the soup kitchen.
"We collect monetary donations and also canned goods for the organization," Thames said.
The light display takes all year to plan and build new features. Ricky even goes to workshops to learn more about Christmas decorating!
"I actually go to a Christmas academy in Houston every year where enthusiasts like me come together and we learn how to build, animate and computerize," Thames said.
His display is so big, Santa can probably see it from his workshop. So we had to ask the one question everyone wants to know. How much is his electricity bill?
"It goes up a little bit. I get asked that question a lot but the running joke in our family is I don't ever discuss that so my wife will let me continue to decorate every year," Thames said.
Ricky says it will take about three months to take everything down. But in the end, all of the hard work is definitely worth it.
"We wave at people coming by. We just have a fun time doing it every year," Thames said.
