COLCHESTER, Vt. (WCAX) – A Colchester house is starting to look a little like the Griswolds’. The family whose home brightens up the whole block uses the holidays as a creative outlet.
Alec Kurek and his wife Alicia have wrapped over 25,000 lights around the trees and gutters of their home. It all started during the pandemic when everyone had some extra time on their hands.
“We’ve always wanted to do exterior illumination when we got a home,” Alec Kurek said.
“The inside of our house is not decorated at all for Christmas right now,” Alicia Kurek said.
The light display began as a pandemic project in 2020.
“2020 lockdown, Thanksgiving was kind of depressing and we just went overboard with the lights,” Alicia Kurek said.
The light count has only grown from there. The Kureks use putting up the lights as a family activity with their daughter Cora.
“I go to the hardware store with my kiddo there and she’ll find the color ball that we don’t have and we’ll buy a couple of them,” Alec Kurek said.
Thanks to solar panel power stocked up from the summer, combined with LED lights, the display doesn’t add any additional cost to their monthly electric bill.
“We’ll run the lights and it’s just chewing into the negative balance we have with Green Mountain Power,” Alec Kurek said.
The lights provide extra illumination for neighborhood children to play outside after dark.
“It’s fun you know you’ll see the neighbor kids all playing in the yard,” Alec Kurek said.
“It’s nice to have some extra lights so they can play past 4 p.m., 4:30,” Alicia Kurek said.
The family says they enjoy the conversations the display has started with not only their neighbors, but strangers too.
“People have stopped by driving real slow, or they’re on walks and they’ll stop by and say how much they enjoy the lights so we just realized we can be a bright spot in everyone’s day,” Alicia Kurek said.
They are always searching for spots to add more lights.
“We’re not stapling lights to the roof yet,” Alicia Kurek said.
Key word, yet.
The Kurek’s house is located near Airport Park in Colchester, you can’t miss it.
