Christmas lights in Portage.mov

By Alex Ebert, Daily Register
The last time Portage held a Christmas lights contest, the Foust family won. That was about 30,000 light bulbs ago.
Since then Claude Houk, a retired Army maintenance worker, has added a garage-sized Santa face and a blinking helicopter complete with St. Nick to his ever-growing world of shining decorations.
The secret to the display is Claude's own Santa's workshop — his tool shed. As a point of pride, and frugality, Claude makes almost all of the pieces.
He's particularly proud of his Santa face. He printed a drawing of Santa from the Internet and laid the image on an overhead projector, casting the design onto a bedsheet he hung from his wall.
He traced the image's lines — the curve of Santa's hat, the lines of his beard — onto the sheet, and from that outline he cut the garage-door sized design. Outline in hand, he bent and soldered steel pieces to give Santa his grin. When the frame was completed, he and his mother strung lights on their giant jolly elf.
This year's biggest addition to the Foust display is the "Mega Tree," a 10,000-bulb "tree" that flashes to music that the family sends over shortwave radio on FM channel 99.3.

Read more at www.portagedailyregister.com.

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News & Politics

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• Christmas lights
• holiday display
• Portage
• Daily Register
• Alex Ebert

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