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Memo to Clark Griswald: Don't bother. Gaithersburg's 13th annual Winter Lights Festival features more tiny bulbs, more extension cords and more toothy grins from furry animals, herald angels, carolers, Santas and snowmen than can be matched, no matter how obsessed the homeowner.
A crew of eight employees in the city's Public Works Department has spent weeks stringing and testing lights on the more than 380 displays at Seneca Creek State Park. Thousands of visitors load up their vehicles every holiday season for a drive through the 3.5-mile winter wonderland, which opens at the Clopper Road park Dec. 5.
"I think the biggest challenge for everybody is meeting our deadlines," said Smith of Damascus. "Getting things done on time."
Typically tranquil, Seneca Creek State Park has been a flurry of activity since Oct. 1 as workers prepare the displays, including 60 lighted archways and 60 animated vignettes. The festival runs nightly Dec. 5 through Jan. 3 — except for Christmas and New Year's Day — with a sneak preview Nov. 28-29. The festival benefits five charities.
"I remember as a kid driving through the neighborhood seeing all the houses, oohing and ahhing," said Elizabeth Poole, an Arlington, Va., resident who grew up in Gaithersburg and brought the festival to the city. "This is really good [for] people who like to see lights and fun things, re-enact their childhood a little bit."
Poole, the city's special events coordinator works with the city's park department, which started a small Christmas lights celebration in 1992 after Poole saw a light show on a golf course in West Virginia and was inspired, she said.
Back then, city workers designed handmade wooden displays and Gaithersburg High School students painted them. They placed Santa's workshop, snowmen and the 12 Days of Christmas on parks department lawn at Summit Hall Turf Farm in Bohrer Park.
Within three years, the show grew to 30 pieces with piped-in organ music and hay rides. A little more research and some long-term planning and the city joined forces in 1995 with the state park, where the event now demands year-round planning.
Giant herald angels, teddy bears, a 41-foot tall "reindeer flight school," and other creative displays line a winding drive through the woods for the show. It includes six themed areas from a Victorian village to a penguin cove, featuring funny birds on sleds. A tunnel of lights demands setting up more than 7,000 feet of light cord.
"Most people love the stuff on the water," said Smith, whose team helped create two moving swans on the lake in 1993 since joined by an animated green dragon, fisherman, a sailboat and flying geese.
"When you've done something from the ground up, you have the opportunity to make it very special," Poole said. "A lot of people have had added their ideas and inspirations each year."
The parks department came up with a squirrel arch to represent native animals in the park's woods. A grandmother she knows designed a dancing teddy bear. Smith dreamed up an animated horse and carriage.
Salvador Carmona of Germantown, an equipment operator setting up displays on Monday, plans to bring his children, Ismael, 14, Andrea, 9, and Karen, 3, several times, he said.
"They already want to come over," he laughed, 10 days left in the final countdown. "I say no we're not done yet."
Smith has taken his 9-year-old granddaughter Kalika Smith to the show every year "since she was small," he said. "It's good to see the excitement on her face."
Though Smith laughed that he's "sweating bullets" and "losing sleep," Poole said that his granddaughter has "bragging rights."
In 13 years, city workers have met the deadline, which this year is Nov. 28. "I haven't sweated," she said. "I know it's going to happen."
The Gaithersburg's 13th annual Winter Lights Festival runs Dec. 5-Jan. 3 (except Dec. 25 and Jan. 1) at Seneca Creek State Park, 11950 Clopper Road, Gaithersburg. A sneak preview runs Nov. 28-30. For information on hours, cost, parking, open-air trolley rides and a Nov. 30 walk through the show, visit www.gaithersburgmd.
gov/winterlights or call 301-258-6350.
