EVERETT — The Christmas display with thousands of red, green and white light bulbs is costly, takes weeks to set up and often trips the circuit breaker.
Bill and Kathleen Lyon — who put up the display with the penguins, sleighs and giant presents under a lighted tree at their Rainier Avenue home — say it’s worth the time and power bill.
They and their family just point at the people who knock on the door.
“A woman who was having a bad day and was crying stopped by, just to say it brightened her day,” said Dale Lyon, who took over putting up the elaborate display for his father five years ago.
Not all are so grateful.
A thief or thieves walked away about two weeks ago with two lighted polar bears, a lighted train set and a 4-foot-tall waving Santa Claus. Someone also tried to yank a wire rocking horse tethered to stakes in the lawn but wound up just mangling it and walking away.
But it didn’t dent Bill Lyon’s Christmas spirit.
The retired Boeing engineer said he will continue with his popular display, which has grown larger and more elaborate over the years.
Bill Lyon filed a police report, estimating the loss of about $400. The cost to replace the stolen items isn’t what angers him most.
“It makes us kind of sick. You go through so much trouble and do all this work and you wake up in the morning and see what’s missing,” he said. “Our first response was ‘to heck with it’ then you get to thinking, ‘we can make due with what we’ve got.’”
Lyon and his son found a replacement for the train, patched the rocking horse back together and filled holes where the other items were taken.
They also take many of their decorations in every night.
Kathleen Lyon said she can’t understand what kind of person would steal from their Christmas display.
“It’s really the stupidity of it,” she said. “So many people come and get enjoyment out of it.”
On a recent chilly evening, Galen Howard drove up to the house with her 3-year-old daughter Rebekah and the two sat in the parked car and watched the moving lights and decorations, including glowing snowmen and candy canes.
But there’s one thing she likes more than all the other decorations.
“I like the horsey,” she said, sitting on her mother’s lap, looking out the car window.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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