If you like to drive around at Christmastime and look at the lights people put up on their homes, you’d better add this one to your list.
The best home Christmas light display in the United States is in Ashburn, Virginia.
The Horn family, who live at 21260 Rosetta Place, won this year’s “Great Christmas Light Fight” that airs every year on ABC. They won $50,000 for having the best light display in the country.
“It felt great,” Mike Horn said. “Really cool to be on a show like that.”
Horn told WTOP that he and his family start putting the lights out in October.
“This year, I’m right under 100,000 lights. I wanted to get over 100,000, but I couldn’t get there, I had two props that did not fit,” he said.
Every square inch of the house, roof, yard, and even the driveway is covered in lights. Horn said his family decides what to do together.
“It’s a joint effort. I ask them what songs they want to see or hear, a lot of stuff in the yard. I’ll ask what would be a good fit,” he said.
The lights are not only synchronized to music, but his family also sang and recorded two of the songs.
“So we ended up doing ‘Deck the Halls’ and we did ‘Up on the Housetop,’” Horn said.
There are two other songs in the show as well, the theme song from The Grinch and “Frosty the Snowman.”
“My wife sang one of the songs and my daughter sang the other, and my other daughter did backup vocals on both,” Horn said.
Horn said traffic to come see the display sometimes resembles that iconic scene from “Field of Dreams,” but most of his neighbors are understanding so he’s going to keep doing it.
“Christmas lights are just a big part of my life,” he said.
The light display is on every night from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. but sometimes, the schedule changes so Horn said to check his Facebook page for updates.
“I would feel bad if people drove a long way to see it and they are not on.”
The last night to see the lights will likely be the Saturday after Christmas.