LEWISTON – Andrew Faucher started decorating the family home when he was 14 years old. As he got older and the family moved to a home with a bigger yard, the display steadily grew.

Now, 20 years old and working full-time, Faucher doesn’t spend “much on anything but cars and Christmas.”

He got serious about the outdoor light display the same year the Ames department store closed, so he scooped up “anything and everything” on sale.

He still decorates his family’s house at 21 Little St., starting the set-up Nov. 1 – the day he also stows away all the outdoor Halloween decorations, lights and frights.

His goal each year is to get the holiday display lit by Thanksgiving night, and to include something new each year.

Faucher said he’s been fascinated by Christmas lights as long as he can remember and “loves making stuff out of nothing.”

This year, he was interested in buying large, lighted globes he saw online. They cost close to $45 each, and he knew he could craft something similar for a lot less.

So, he bought sleeves of hard plastic cocktail cups, drilled a hole in the bottom of each and inserted two lights into each hole until he had 50 cups and 100 lights shaped and stapled into a dozen globes. Inspired to create a giant tree like the one he saw at the home of Jamie and Karen Loggins on Vista Drive in Auburn, Faucher strung lights from his roof and anchored them to the ground, creating the appearance of a tree.

He took the lighted globes he made and hung them without symmetry. “I tried to hang them as you would on a Christmas tree,” he said.

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Knowing his plan to install so many new lights this year, Faucher’s mother, Anna Faunce, worried about overloading the home’s electrical system. Last year, the lights tripped circuits a couple of times and adding lights would increase the load.

Faucher didn’t want to worry his mother about fire, so he hired an electrician to install additional circuits, and two more outdoor outlets. It’s plenty to power this year’s display and bigger displays in the future.

“Every year he wants to add something else and something else and something else,” Faunce said. “He just loves it.” She does, too.

There are about 50 suction cups on each of the interior windows, holding lights in place so they don’t droop.

Faunce, who works for Central Maine Power Co., laughs when she says she gets a weekly paycheck and then turns around “and spends the whole year paying my electric bill” to fund her son’s winter wonderland.

She’s happy to do it because he enjoys setting up the lights and others enjoy seeing the display.

Faucher’s siblings tease him, but his nephew loves the lights and wants to see them on, even during the day.

He gets some ribbing from his friends, but Faucher said others “are tuned into it” and enjoy seeing his projects unfold.

Once the lights come down and are stored for the summer, Faucher turns his attention to his car, a tricked-out Neon that earns trophies at local car shows.

And next year?

Faucher intends to expand his holiday display into the front yard, setting up animated deer, bear, moose and whatever else he dreams up.