Their lights, your 'wow'

He builds the elaborate holiday displays with her help.

By BETH N. GRAY, Times Correspondent
Published November 30, 2007

John and Kay Neuman estimate they have 70,000 lights on their home at 15290 Brice Drive, north of Brooksville, for all to see.
	[Maurice Rivenbark | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Maurice Rivenbark | Times] An angel hangs in a tree in front of the Neumans' home. The lights and music are on daily 6 to 9 p.m. They invite all to drive by. Related links Video: See the display

BRICE MANOR -- Most homeowners looking for outdoor holiday decorating displays just head to the local stores. Not John Neuman.

He builds his own. And they're not doodads, they're elaborate constructions.

Consider: 71,000 lights, a half-dozen evergreen trees on the lawn, more white-fringed trees lining Brice Drive in front of his house, twinkling snowflakes on the house and garage roof, arches throughout the yard flashing lights in various colors, hand-fashioned and painted Christmas candy canes bearing lights.

Neuman and his wife, Kay, believe it to be the largest display in Hernando County. But it's not just lights.

John Neuman has built a 6-foot-tall carousel with four revolving horses. They rotate via a ceiling fan camouflaged by a tented cover. The horses he cut from Styrofoam slabs, and painted. All are his own design.

And there's a 6-foot-tall rotating Ferris wheel, its seats bearing toy animal figures. Again, it's all his own architecture.

The highlight, literally, this year is an 8-foot angel lighted in blue and white, built on a wire frame, and hanging 30 feet up in a tree. Her wings move. She was five weeks in the making.

How did he get her into the tree? Renting a crane would have cost $200. But the Neumans' ingenuity never stops.

Kay came up with a solution. She sent her husband to buy a slingshot, he attached a heavy metal nut to the end of a fishing line and launched it over his selected branch. The fishing line was then attached to a sturdy rope, which was hauled over the branch, carrying the angel with it. The couple circled the rope around the tree's trunk.

Success, for a lot less than $200.

While John, 57, has been decorating for 20 years, he admits he's gone "crazy" in the five years since the couple moved to a 2.5-acre property north of Brooksville, where he says he has space to expand his "passion."

"Not passion," interjected his wife. "It's obsession."

But she's happily joined the endeavor. While John builds the frames for his constructions, Kay, 62, attaches those 71,000 lights.

The couple, both technicians with Alltel Communications in Pasco County, began to set up the displays in October. Then, John took two weeks vacation in November to work dawn to dusk on the project.

In addition to the angel in the air, new this year is a gargantuan bell hanging from another tree. Its three clappers light in sequence so it appears to be ringing.

"I don't like to be bored," John said. "I'll go out in the garage and build something."

And with it all, there's music in the air, and bubbles upon bubbles wafting from a machine planted in a Santa sleigh. "Florida snow," John called the bubbles. He buys bubble formula by the case.

The whole display is operated by computer, utilizing an MP3 player and all connected to three computer controllers. The wires leading into the electrical panel can't be encircled by a large fist.

John estimated the outlay for power from Thanksgiving through Dec. 25 will be about $350. Kay pegged the outlay for constructing and supplies at some $8,000.

"It's just fun," John insisted. "It's a way of being creative." Of visitors, he said, "Everybody smiles."

Then he points out the alligators dressed in lights, one wearing a Santa hat; the frame of a train outlined in lights to which he added sequential twinklers to resemble blowing smoke; dancing silk tubes that Kay concocted to draw attention to the Ferris wheel.

New ideas are always occurring to John. "I want a train that travels around, all around," John said. "Now, I'm at the point I want a 'wow,' not just lights."

Many visitors a lready consider it a "wow." The Neumans estimate they had 300 lookers last year, many of them repeats.

If you go

See for yourself

The couple welcomes drive-bys and stoppers nightly till 9 p.m. at 15290 Brice Drive, which they aptly dubbed Candy Cane Acres, or you can watch a video at http://hernando.tampabay.com.

[Last modified November 30, 2007, 00:37:55]