45,000 lights — Pleasant Grove display is semifinalist in contest

PLEASANT GROVE — For the Holdman family, Christmas means 45,000 lights, 200 hours of wrapping and 33,000 watts of electricity.

This is the second year Richard Holdman and his family lit up their house for all to see. But this year they could win something for it, as well as give something for it.

Holdman entered his light display into Kentucky Fried Chicken's Festive Fanatics decorating competition. The winner receives a year's worth of KFC food and their electricity and credit card bills paid for December. The Holdmans are one of 12 semifinalist families in the contest. Individuals can go in and vote for the family they think has the best display.

Not all Utahns responding to a Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll share the Holdmans' fondness for decorating their homes. The poll shows nagging apparently accounts for a third of the outdoor Christmas lights on Utah houses.

To the question "would you forgo decorating your house or yard if someone in your household didn't insist on it," 33 percent of poll respondents who actually decorate their houses answered "yes." Two-thirds of Utahns generally decorate the outside of their houses for the holiday season, the poll shows, but a slightly smaller number said they have decorated or plan to decorate this year.

And only 2 percent of people who decorate their houses or yards describe that effort as "ablaze or all-out." Fifty percent call what they do "minimal." The poll, conducted Dec. 12-15, has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 5 percent.

Holdman's display, which will cost the family about $120 in electricity in December, features the lights programmed to music that can be heard on 99.9 FM, so people can sit in their cars and watch the show. Because the lights flicker and dance to the beat of the music, the electric bill isn't as large as some people would believe, Holdman said.

Holdman started the programming process in July and laid out lights throughout his house and in his back yard to get everything right. His wife and neighbors also help him wind and twist his creation around his home.

"My 4-year-old daughter tries to help, but it doesn't work too good," he said.

After last year's success, the Holdmans decided to promote something good with their dancing display — they're collecting money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.