The night sky starts glowing before you even turn onto the street. Cars crawl by in a slow parade, families pile out with hot chocolates in hand and kids race ahead, faces lit by the reflection of hundreds of thousands of bulbs. What they’ve come to see isn’t a theme park or a city event…it’s a house. And not just any house, but the home of Mark and Patty Macek, where every December, Christmas becomes an art form.
You can hear the awe before you see it. The Maceks’ sprawling yard transforms into a glowing storybook scene: Santa’s Workshop bustling with elf silhouettes in the windows, a red sleigh brimming with gifts, a Nativity surrounded by golden trees and the family’s legendary oak wrapped in 60,000 lights. “We normally put up … about 175,000 lights,” says Joe Bird, the electrician and longtime neighbor who has helped bring the display to life for decades. “There’s over … 300 extension cords used and 60,000 lights in that one big tree itself,” Mark adds with a laugh that suggests even he can’t believe it anymore.
The Maceks’ holiday story began in the late 1990s when they moved into their Pompano home. Mark, a Michigan native and former Florida State football player, missed snowy winters and small-town Christmases. “We were in Florida, and I missed the snow and decorations,” he says. “We started doing a little bit on our own.” A neighbor wrapped the big oak in nets of lights one year. Then Bird, who had recently moved down the street, offered to help and the rest is Christmas history.
And it kept growing. Over 25 years, the display has evolved into a holiday destination for anyone within driving distance. “It just became such a tradition and a ritual,” Mark says. “It’s brought so many people. I couldn’t count how many.”
As the decorations multiplied, so did the logistics. Electrical planning became an annual puzzle, with Bird’s son, Kyle (now an electrician himself) handling the heavy wiring. “In the beginning, we didn’t even know what we were trying to do,” Joe says. “We just put lights up. Then we realized we were drawing more than what we could pull out of the house.” So they upgraded, one outlet and circuit at a time, until the system could power an entire winter wonderland.
When the décor outgrew the garage, Mark took the obvious next step. “We decided to build a Christmas garage,” he says, grinning. “It’s about 1,200 square feet, just to store all the Christmas stuff.” Inside, there are decades of props, lights wound neatly onto reels and boxes of memories. Patty even kept sign-in books for visitors (nearly a hundred of them now) filled with messages from families “from all over the world,” Mark says proudly.
Everything on display is either custom-built or carefully sourced. “Everything is pretty much built or it was bought,” Mark explains. “There’s no balloons, no blow-ups.” Santa’s Workshop, the centerpiece of the yard, was handcrafted by Bird and his crew, complete with a conveyor belt for toys. Around the corner, the train scene features a vintage Mighty Casey set that the family tracked down from a collector in Ohio. “We stopped there on our way back from Michigan and picked up the train cars and engines,” Mark remembers. “And then we just added to it.”
Even as the display has grown, the Maceks have resisted turning it into a commercial spectacle. “We’ve been approached many times to be on “The Great Christmas Light Fight”, and we’ve turned it down,” Mark says. “It’s not for that, it’s just for the kids.”
That philosophy shows in the details. The yard isn’t just lit; it’s choreographed. Lights follow a rhythm, colors stay balanced and every corner tells a story. “Everything has a place and a reason to be there,” Bird says.
This year brings one change even the Maceks and the Birds didn’t plan for: the end of incandescent lights. “We were told shortly before we were ready to start that they’re no longer carrying any more incandescent lights, so we were forced to go LED,” Bird says. The switch made him nervous, but the results won him over. “It actually was not as bright as I thought. It did have somewhat of a soft look,” he adds, sounding both relieved and impressed.
Every year, work starts in early November (sometimes even before Halloween) so that the lights can officially debut on Thanksgiving night. The display runs every night until New Year’s Day. “We used to stay till January 6 for Three Kings Day, but it just became too much,” Mark says. “Now New Year’s is our last night.”
The neighborhood, far from complaining, joins the fun. Bird strings lights on the neighbors’ palms, creating a continuous canopy of color. Across the street, Santa arrives a few days before Christmas on an old Pompano fire truck, handing out gifts to kids. “It’s free for everyone to enjoy,” Mark says.
That has made the house something more than just a holiday display; it’s a gathering point. Parents push strollers, teens snap selfies, couples linger under the oak. Kids stare, wide-eyed, whispering to each other that maybe, just maybe, Santa’s workshop is real.
When the lights finally go dark after New Year’s, the takedown begins. Every strand is rolled, labeled and stored. And as soon as one season ends, the planning quietly begins for the next. “This is going to be our 25th year,” Bird says. “It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.”
There’s a rhythm to it now: a labor of love that’s part tradition, part engineering feat and entirely heartfelt. For the Maceks and the Birds, it’s not about fame or fanfare. It’s about that moment when the switch flips, the lights blink on and an entire street gasps together. “It’s hard sometimes, but when the lights go on and the people show up, it’s all worth it,” Bird says.
