Everyone welcome to award winning X-Mas Light Display

MARQUETTE TOWNSHIP — “In today’s age, a lot of people don’t decorate. It just brings a spirit out in people. Some people come up to me and say, ‘I really needed that’. That’s what it’s all about.”

For the last 19 years, John Carter and his wife, Stacy, have been collecting Christmas lights and decorations. The Carter’s Christmas display is immaculate.

Thousands upon thousands of lights and many, many decorations fill their house and yard each and every year. Carter says he doesn’t put up the display to win the Marquette Board of Light and Power’s Christmas Lights Contest, which his family won again this year.

“You don’t do it for the contest,” said Carter. “I would do it even if there wasn’t a contest. Seeing little kids come through and saying, ‘No mom, Santa really does live here!’ that sort of thing. We have people from the Jacobetti Center come in. The older people and the younger people… everyone enjoys it.”

It takes several months to put up such an elaborate display. The Carter family started hanging up lights and decorations in October. John, a retired member of the United States Air Force, does have a soft spot for one of the displays.

“I have an area that’s a patriotic area. It’s dedicated to the military,” he explained. “There’s an American flag, Santa with the flag and Mrs. Claus.”

As far as the electric bill goes, John wouldn’t give me the exact number, but he did say that his electric bill does go up, ever so slightly.

“Obviously it can’t stay the same,” he said. “I talked to the guys on the west end, guys that I work with and they’re paying quite a bit for their electricity. Mine only goes up a little bit above theirs. It’s only once a month.”

The Carter’s will keep their display running through early January.