Marquette BLP Lighting Contest

Houses across the area are decorated with Christmas lights, but a few go above and beyond.

The Marquette Board of Light & Power has just held its 30th annual Christmas light contest.

Houses were covered in thousands of lights and decorations, and some houses even had Christmas music.

The Carter family’s house on North Vandenboom Avenue has a large space to decorate, and they’ve used more than 30,000 lights and hundreds of figurines.

They came in first place in the Winners’ Circle, the ‘best of the best’ category.

The Carters have a ‘Salute to the Military’ scene, gingerbread men and nativity scenes.

They also have a path to walk in between all of the figurines and pass out candy canes.

The Bryant family on West Ohio Street adds new cut–outs to their display each year.

This year, they added a Spongebob Squarepants cut out.

The Bryants have been participating in the contest for twenty years, and this year they took second in the Elfin Magic category.

There are even tours for people to go on to see all of the decorated homes.

More than two dozen homes are on the tour.

Most of the houses will stay lit until the first of the year.