DURHAM – Some people get in the Christmas spirit by decorating their yard, their trees, their house.

John Flanagan decorates his tractor-trailer cab.

Parked in front of his Newall Brook Road home, the cab is done in eye-catching white lights, giving the truck a sophisticated but festive look.

The Christmas truck’s good fit for Flanagan, a long-haul trucker.

Inspiration for his cab came from what he saw while driving through St. Louis, Mo. A company that sells bulldozers and construction equipment outlined the machinery in lights. “I thought that was neat,” Flanagan said.

So three years ago he put a retired cab to good use. He outlined the wheels, the fuel tank, the tires and fenders in white lights. A timer turns the lights on at dusk, off after 10 p.m.

“I love it,” he said. He likes Christmas, and “I love trucks. I wanted to do something less traditional. I’m not home enough to have a Christmas tree. I don’t have shrubbery to decorate.”

Initially he worried others may not like what he did. He’s since heard positive feedback.

He’s struck up conversations with people he didn’t know at the Durham Variety Store, where he fuels up. When he tells people where he lives, they smile and say, ‘”Oh, you’re the one with the truck all lit up.'”

They seem to like it, he said. “That makes it all worthwhile.”

– By Bonnie Washuk