MEDICINE HAT, AB — Some families have made it their tradition, driving around Medicine Hat, looking for the best and brightest holiday displays.
Don Gillespie spends months working on his annual animated holiday light show.
“It’s not Christmas music to lights,” he said. “It’s Christmas lights to music.”
Gillespie’s Lights on Fifth display always draws a crowd. Vehicles line up along 5th Avenue NW and along 2nd Street NW, tuning their radios to take in the show.
Gillespie needs to make sure every light flickers the right colour at the right moment. He works from his laptop, which he says he takes everywhere with him.
“Every element has to try and do something, with a drum roll or a guitar lick, a cymbal, anything,” he said, pulling up one of the programs on his ‘show computer’.
“I need that horn to be in perfect time,” he said, as an animated Santa swung back and forth, playing the saxophone.
There’s a lot Gillespie has to consider when arranging his song selection for the year.
“It has to have a good beat,” he said. “I don’t want people sitting in their car going ‘Oh, that’s kind of boring’,”.
He’s painstakingly precise and said it’s worth every minute.
“The world is a crazy place, and if we can make it a little more happier here for people, that’s what we want to do,” he added.
Kevin Dornian’s ‘Beauty on Balmoral’ is hard to miss.
“It started really with just one strand of lights my mom gave me and I put it up and I thought ‘Oh, I should buy some more’. I went on Boxing Day and then the addiction began, basically.”
Dornian said he doesn’t know how many lights he’s put up, but guessed it’s thousands.
His neighbours only have a few holiday decorations in comparison.
“I moved in here on September 27th, three years ago, and I just started putting up Christmas lights and they’re like, ‘Oh, do you put up a few?’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, just a few,’ he said, smiling. “Nothing too spectacular,” he laughed.
Over in Redcliff, Matt Stroh’s display earned him the title ‘Yard of the Month’, courtesy of the Lions Club.
“We started off with a few strings of lights and we’ve slowly been adding to them, year after year,” Stroh said. “And then this year, we just added to them significantly, actually.”
An inflatable Stormtrooper and Darth Vader stand proud in the front lawn, joined by an inflatable Minion display.
It’s all becoming a Christmas tradition for his family.
“Just to see my kids when we finally turn them on for the first time, their faces are, they’re priceless,” he said.
