By Sam Gilkey
For The News-Gazette

Drive by Ron Lister’s home on Sunburst Way, off Denn John Lane in east Kissimmee, during the day and you’ll realize something big is about to happen.

The front yard is filled with inflated holiday figures, Christmas boxes and balls, a tall tree and strings of lights falling off the roof and snaking their way across the ground.

Come back after dark and you really get the full effect of what Lister has done for 20 years.

“Well, I always liked Christmas lights,” Lister said. “The first year I was in the house I put up maybe 4,000 lights. This year it’s up to over 50,000 lights. I haven’t put anything new in this year. Really, I have run out of space in the yard.”

So much so that Lister has branched out to a neighbor across the street where a modest 2,000 lights outlines that home.

Lister’s annual extravaganza is self-financed. “My electric bill only goes up about $80 for the five weeks or so the lights are on,” he said.

And he does most all the work himself.

“I try to start around the first of November getting everything out of the garage. I keep everything in boxes. I have only had my car in there three times in 20 years and that was during hurricanes. It was really a tight fit.”

He does get a little help putting the flag pole up that is the center of a tree that has upward of 7,000 lights cascading down.

“I used to do more on the roof but decided to go with lighted snowflakes instead,” he said.

Has he ever figured out how much he has invested in this--hobby?

“Too much,” he admitted. “The most expensive thing is the control board.”

A computer inside the house determines when the lights are turned on and off each evening and when each of the lights on his house and his neighbor’s house flash in split-second timing with the Christmas music that accompanies the display. There are eight songs currently in the mix. To add another piece of music takes about a month to program, Lister said. The music can be heard once you enter the subdivision by tuning an FM radio to 96.1.

Over the years, the displays have attracted thousands of people who drive by and marvel at what Lister had done. The lights are up until the first of the new year and then it’s back in the boxes.

“I will shut everything down in case of bad weather,” he said. “The LED lights are susceptible to weather.

“A few years ago someone stole the baby Jesus from the Nativity display, so I bring Joseph, Mary and the baby in every night.”

Lister grew up in Kansas. His college degree was in horticulture and he worked in the field at Walt Disney World for five years before injuring his back. Now he is employed in Disney’s transportation department, where he makes sure drivers have the proper certifications and training.

When asked how he would compare his display with Disney’s Christmas lights, Lister just smiled and double-checked another string of bulbs.