JAY — Brian and Nevada Daigle’s family began checking over 45,000 holiday lights in October at their home on state Route 133 at Beans Corner.
Spools of extension cords, five remotes each controlling 16 channels, homemade displays, a 25-foot mega tree, and mini trees were all ready to go.
“We do it because I like seeing people’s faces,” Brian said. “I like seeing people dancing in the (Bean’s Corner Baptist Church) parking lot,” he said.
The same goes for his wife, Nevada.
“It is just the enjoyment for families,” she said. “It gives them something to look forward to.”
The couple’s children, Destiny, 20, and Brian Jr., 16, along with Destiny’s boyfriend, Hunter Walker, 24, enjoy the family time as well.
Brian started doing Christmas lights when he was 12.
“I haven’t stopped,” he said.
Brian, an electrician with Ideal Electric Inc. in Winslow, started putting up strings of lights along the roofline of the house Saturday. He borrowed a manlift from the company and fashioned lights into stars on the roof as a precursor of what is to come.
“Each year it is our goal to get the show turned on sometime during the weekend following Thanksgiving,” Brian said. “If anything changes from that plan though we always post it to our Facebook page.”
Brian Jr. continued checking lights Saturday to make sure they worked.
The annual Beans Corner Lights’ holiday show has drawn people from miles away each Christmas season. Visitors can park in the Bean’s Corner Baptist Church parking lot. There is no parking on the sides of the roads in that area. The church is around the corner on Route 156/Chesterville Road.
People started posting on Beans Corner Lights Facebook page Nov. 1 that they were looking forward to this year’s event.
The Daigles moved to Jay in 2007 and decorated with blow-up figures, but they were not conducive to the wind that sweeps across the area. In 2012, they started doing lighting shows. People can turn to 88.7 FM on their radios as they drive by to hear the music that synchronizes with the show.
The displays are all homemade.
Nevada and Destiny made minitrees out of tomato cages and added Christmas lights. Destiny drew gnomes on plywood and her mother helped her cut them out. Destiny, who is studying graphics communications and is a photographer, also designed T-shirts with the words Beans Corner Lights and an image of a light bulb on it.
The family has incorporated a sloth, a giraffe, presents and other holiday surprises.
The structural supports for the decorations have to be engineered, said Brian, who has always wanted to do a light show.
“We started with one controller and now we have five,” Nevada said. They have been changing the bulbs to LED lights where they can, but some decorations have to stay with incandescent light bulbs, she said.
They started putting some of the displays on pallets to make it easier to move, she said.
They originally mapped the set-up, Destiny said. “However, we now just play it by ear.”
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