Lighting up the holiday
Each year Fred Lambert has to start putting up his Christmas lights a little earlier. This year he started on Sept. 15.
Both Halloween and Thanksgiving passed with little notice as the 74-year-old Christmas elf hauled hundreds of yard ornaments and decorations outside, decorated three houses, checked and placed tens of thousands of lights and created a Christmas light display that covers three acres. He didn’t finish until Wednesday.
Lambert remembers exactly when he began lighting up for the holidays in a big way. “I built my first star in 1988, and that’s when it just kinda went out of control,” he said. Although he says he doesn’t really know why he does it, his wife, Mary, has an idea, “He just loves doing it – it’s his baby.”
While Mary doesn’t usually get involved in decorating the outdoors, she matches Fred in his love for all things Christmas. She spends days turning the interior of their modest home into a Christmas wonderland with collections of snowmen, angels, painted ponies, Tweety birds and a huge 9-foot revolving tree loaded with more than 1,500 lights and hundreds of ornaments.
The Lamberts held a light show dress rehearsal for Mary’s bunco group on Tuesday, and the lights went on for the public Wednesday. From now through Dec. 30, they will hand candy canes to all who drive through their circular driveway lined with hundreds of small, plastic figures, hundreds of lighted milk jugs and thousands of Christmas lights strung on fences and trees.
Checking his “bible,” a notebook that includes detailed facts and figures that guide him in setting up the display each year, Lambert calculates the display includes 80 toy soldiers and 90 candy canes. Other lighted figures include a rocking horse, the Gingerbread Express and Santa and Mrs. Claus.
When asked how many lights he puts up, Lambert said, “I have no idea – I can’t take time to count the lights.” But, he agreed, there are a lot. Lighted reindeer, penguins and teddy bears frolic among lighted signs proclaiming “North Pole,” “Peace on Earth” and “Let it snow.” Lambert’s favorite display, a nativity scene, (with four camels, he adds proudly), takes center stage among colorful Santas, presents, angels and polar bears; while an American flag glows proudly beside brightly lit snowmen, snowflakes and stars.
He said his collection continues to grow because some of his friends shop at garage sales, but, he admitted, he still buys a few himself. “I go shopping every Dec. 26, whether I need it or not,” he said with a grin.
The work of putting up and taking down this display (he puts it completely away each year) would be taxing at any age; but Lambert, a small man who resembles one of Santa’s elves rather than Santa himself, tackles it with enthusiasm. And this isn’t his only job. The former jockey, who raced at Playfair for 30 years, works for Northwest Fence during the months he isn’t getting ready for his holiday light show.
Preparing the light display is is daunting – just setting the figures up takes weeks. To make sure each plastic figure is secure, Lambert places a cement block, anchors a piece of wood to it, screws the figure down with two screws, and then hooks up electricity. He does get a little help from a young man he hires after school, and he says the guys at Grace Tree Service help him with placing lights in the towering evergreens.
Then there is figuring out the lighting. His bible includes color-coded maps and diagrams that outline the display. “I’d be lost without this,” he said, thumping the notebook lying on the table. “I try to plan it out, so I don’t throw the breakers,” he said, crediting his success to a solid knowledge of how electricity works.
And the cost? Lambert said he and his wife budget their electric bill, paying a set amount each month. That way, their December bill of about $375 “doesn’t break the bank.” They began accepting donations in 1993, but let those donating know they give the money to area food banks. Lambert turned to his bible again for the figures. “Last year we donated $500 to the Post Falls Food Bank and $300 to the humane society,” he said.
Lambert says his favorite thing is “The people I meet,” and he especially enjoys jumping up in the buses that come through from area nursing homes. He visits a little and hands out candy canes.
“We even have sugar-free ones, if they need them,” he added.