Around October, I noticed some activity going on in the backyard at the tail end of East Prospect Street. From my vantage point and what I could make out, there appeared to be two huge 8-foot high letters. One looked like a “J” and the other a “Y”. Using my crack investigative skills, I was able to piece it all together. If my instincts were right, the homeowner at the east end of Prospect was making a wooden JOY sign. Turns out, I was right.

For the last eight years, William Ornelas has transformed his yard into an illuminated Christmas masterpiece and drawn in spectators from all over town. On some nights, the traffic was steady as vehicle after vehicle made the slow roll past William’s lighting display.

But watching as another display was being created, I wondered, where does this passion for outdoor illumination come from? So being curious, I contacted him and asked for an interview. My hope was to find out what drives this man to light up the corner of his block.

Of course, the amount of dedication, determination and hard work comes at a cost. His wife, Lacey, is supportive of what he does and she has a nickname for him.

“The very first time he did it,” said Lacey, “he made two box trees and circled around the house. I told people they could officially call him Clark.”

That’s Clark, as in Clark Griswold. But even the hapless husband from the movie “Christmas Vacation” can’t hold a candle to William, who admits that since his slight obsession with illumination began years ago, he’s added so many lights that he’s lost track.

“Once I hit 60,000, I stopped counting,” he said.

The size of the display has grown and evolved. But it all started when his daughter Edy was around six or seven and loved Christmas lights, he recalled. His own mother loved Christmas and the interior of their home was always decked out for the holiday, but she didn’t put much outside in the way of lights, he said.

So when Edy expressed her delight in Christmas lights, William tackled the exterior of his house. He added about 20 strands of lights, a couple box trees he made and a wooden snowman. But by the third year, that’s when things got out of hand, he said.

It was that year William began to create his own displays and added pallet trees and homemade signs. A fence began to form on his front lawn, decorated with candy canes and awash with lights. Since then, William has only added to his display. Wooden cutouts and lighted Christmas trees brought the total number of displays in the third year to 22. It’s now six times as large.

His inspiration for his decorations comes from things he sees others do and then he copies them. People also give him items and he recently purchased giant snowflakes from a woman who no longer had any use for them.

“This year alone, I have $1500 in this and I’ve purchased thousands of lights over the years,” he said. His power bill runs around $160 for the month.

He’s kept photos of the evolution of his holiday displays, and counts 119 features now in his front and side yards. Along the west side of his house are rows of artificial Christmas trees, one that belonged to his mom, who passed away. He’s decorated it every year in purple lights-her favorite color- to honor both her memory and her love of the holidays.

He started the process of building his display in early November and made use of the nice weather to work late into the evening. The task takes over 100 hours to put up. He had help, he said. His son, Walker, worked alongside him, and his friend, John Stout, brought a bucket truck to build the Christmas tree flagpole. In Novembers past, his family has driven to town to lend a hand.

Several years ago, he enlisted Lacey to start making cookies to pass out on the night of the official park lighting of Windmont and Northeast; the night many residents drive around town to look at neighborhood Christmas displays. In previous years, they have handed out hundreds of cookies. Last weekend, Lacey spent 10 hours in the kitchen baking up 350 cookies to distribute.

“He loves to hand out things,” she said.

He also loves lights, she admits. “It makes him happy although it’s stressful,” she said. And the east side of her basement where William stores the displays during the rest of the year no longer belongs to her. “It makes him happy, so I’ll withstand it,” she joked. “He’s not getting any younger.”

William’s plan is to continue to decorate his house and yard until he can no longer do it because he loves bringing the joy of Christmas to others. The positive feedback he gets from the community members and even strangers, who message him on social media to thank him for his hard work, makes it all worthwhile, he said.

“Last year, people I didn’t even know sent me Christmas cards,” he said.

His lighting display on the corner of East Prospect and Maple Avenue will remain brightly lit until the first weekend of January.