TRAVERSE CITY — It’s after 6 p.m. on a cold Saturday night in mid-December and people are already parking and lining up to drive by the huge holiday display that Paul and Jenny Sparks create around their home near US 31 and 4 Mile Road in East Bay Township every year.
The lights have just gone on in all of their glory for the evening. “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is playing low in the background. To say the whole spread is hard to miss would be an understatement. In fact, that’s what prompted some of the people who instead of just driving by as so many do at first, to get out of their cars and walk among the hundreds of light features and tableaux — everything from angels and candy canes and wreaths and elves to vintage Santa blow molds, reindeer, scenes from the manger and inflatables.
“We’ve driven past it lots of times, but never stopped,” says Josh Kaskinen of Grawn, who was visiting with his wife Annie, 2-year-old toddler and parents Lisa and Mike Kaskinen of Beulah. They had just discovered that the Sparks also serve free hot cocoa, opening up a shed where visitors can help themselves. “It’s a nice touch,” Josh adds. Closer to Dec. 25, the Sparks offer popcorn.
If it’s related to Christmas, you’ll see it at the Sparks’ display. Paul is the lightning rod for the effort. He got his start as a kid of about 12 around 1987 helping his grandmother decorate inside and out at her house, which was a few blocks away at the time.
“We had two angels, a cross, lights around the eve of the house and there were a couple other blow molds — those are the plastics,” he said. “I did it for a couple of years with her and when I turned 16, I asked grandma if we could decorate my house too. So we did Grandma’s, then Grandma would come over and decorate our house.”
That was where he lived with his mom.
“I never knew my dad,” Paul said. “Ma loved it (when his grandma came to decorate), because Grandma was over there.”
Every year, Paul added a little bit more to the display at his mother’s. It’s the same place he and Jenny share now. His mother died seven years ago, and he and Jenny offer up their current annual display in memory of both his mom and grandmother. Some of his grandma’s earliest pieces are always included.
“My grandma never got to see how big it’s gotten,” Paul says. “Ma started to see before she passed away how big it’s getting, but they didn’t see what it’s grown into.”
He said it’s only been the last seven or eight years that their holiday display has reached its current scale.
“What happened is, people just kept dropping stuff off,” he says. “They were donating stuff that didn’t work and said, ‘If you can fix it, you can have it, or throw it away.’ And every year, I kept buying more.”
Paul estimates he’s got about 300 blow molds. They own some three dozen inflatables. He has no idea how many feet of lights they use — suffice it to say, it’s a lot.
“I used to keep track of it, but I don’t anymore,” he says.
They store it all in several sheds on their property, beginning setup Nov. 3, opening Dec. 1 and then repairing one thing or another pretty much every weekend.
“We start tearing it down in January if the weather is good and the ground isn’t frozen,” Paul sid. “If not, it sits there until almost March. It takes about a month to take it down and put it away.”
The display is open daily, with Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights being the busiest. The couple like when people get out and walk their yard; there’s limited parking adjacent at a power substation, behind the Speedway across the street and behind the little strip shopping center that stands between them and U.S. 31.
“We have an OK with all of those,” Paul said.
They’re usually outside to greet visitors — often dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus — and are available evenings because they work early mornings delivering the Traverse City Record-Eagle. They love interacting with their guests.
“I’ve had tons of people come in and just say to us, ‘You changed my day and made me feel good,’” Paul said. “It brings joy to them.”
For Jenny, the children who come are the best part.
“A lot of the little kids will come up and say ‘thank you,’ and a lot of them will also give me a hug,” she says. “That makes me happy.”
Paul noted that a few neighbors have registered complaints about the lights and traffic. The couple worked with township officials and law enforcement to coordinate putting out cones and erecting signs asking people to avoid backing up or stopping in driveways and to continue through the neighborhood without turning around to lessen the impact.
“That was more working with residents and the property owner to make sure there wasn’t a nuisance,” says Claire Karner, East Bay Township director of planning and zoning. “Other than that, there were no violations or anything, it was more trying to keep the peace among the neighbors, which is oftentimes what we do.”
Their immediate next-door neighbor, Carol Livesay, supports the Sparks’ holiday efforts and lends part of her yard to the project. She even helps Paul put the reindeer on his roof.
“It brings smiles to so many people’s faces,” she said. “Tis the season to be jolly. And they’re good people. That’s what I say about Paul and Jenny — they’re good people.”
Plus the Sparks save Livesay from having to put up her own decorations.
“I used to put up three little snowmen,” she said. “Not now. People don’t even see mine once they go past that light show … and it’s not my electric bill.”
About that electric bill: it runs the Sparks about $900 a month. In fact, a year ago they had to upgrade their home’s power after maxing out their existing service. It’s helped that about four years ago, one appreciative local supporter brought over a wooden donation box and told them they need to put it up so that guests who are inclined to can help out a little.
“Our donations pay for our hot chocolate, they pay for the light bill and pay for some of the extra lights that we do,” Paul said.
But they aren’t deterred by the expense or the amount of time and work it all takes — very much because of people like Jennifer Anderson of Kingsley, who was visiting with her daughter.
“It’s so amazing they put all of this together,” Anderson said. “It’s such a nice treat for all of the local families.”
The Sparks live at 1953 Oak Drive in East Bay Township. The display opens at 6 p.m. daily.