Judging the Twinkle

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How many former elementary school teachers does it take to string up tens of thousands of lights?

Just one, but he’s really got to love it.

Milt Hill of Duluth, who earned a Masters Award in the 2012 Duluth Holiday Lighting Contest, exemplifies the passion to create and to share that drives homeowners to do their beautiful lighting displays every Christmas season.

“It’s a joy. The fun part of it is when someone stops by (while you’re stringing lights) and says, ‘Good, you’re

not going to stop this year, either.’”

Yes, unlike the Christmases of centuries past, holiday lighting displays remain one of the activities that bring a sense of wonder into our modern season.

This year in Duluth, you can help to judge the outside decorations of your neighbors as part of the Duluth

Holiday Lighting Contest, sponsored by Lake Superior Magazine, the Duluth News Tribune and the city of Duluth. The People’s Choice Award is based on votes by regular folk visiting the displays entered into the revived contest, currently in its third year.

Milt and his wife, Kay, will be among the celebrity judges this year. (“I’m the addicted one, but she has to have some blame laid on her,” Milt jokes. “She comes up with the ideas.”) Earning the “Masters Award,” essentially a lifetime achievement acknowledgment, also puts their house outside the competition in the future. Marcia Hales, subject of Chuck Frederick’s book, Spirit of the Lights, received a similar award several years ago. You can read about her walk-through holiday display and the 10th anniversary of the Bentleyville lights on the Duluth waterfront on page 82.

Milt has advice for judges. “I look for the creativity, of course … I look to see what they’ve done as far as their ideas. And the way they hang the lights – neat and trim framing of the windows and doors. I know the work that a person puts into it. When you see what they’ve done, you can appreciate it.”

Duluth has another popular and creative lighting contest. The Greater Downtown Council’s Lighting and Window Display contest asks merchants to join in friendly competition to make the best window displays.

In Michigan, Marquette also has a lighting and decorating contest with six categories, including one for first-time entries, and covering homes within the Marquette Board of Light and Power’s coverage area. Yvonne Whitman has coordinated the contest for 21 years for the MBLP.

Yvonne says 30 to 35 entries usually are received. Winners get a sign to post in their yards announcing their achievement, as well as a Santa Trophy. Any display taking home a first place can only compete in the Winners Circle category for the next three years, Yvonne says. That means being judged with the best of the best. “They’re exceptional displays. Those judges really have a hard time.”

MBLP partners with The Mining Journal and Checkered Cab, a local bus company, to do one-hour guided tours of selected entries. The price for the tour is a toy for the Cheer Club, which brings presents to needy children, The tours “sell out” every year.

Yvonne and Milt both agree that winners start early. Some start as early as September to put up items. For his display, Milt puts up lighting immediately after Halloween decorations come down. (“If you’re going to wait until Thanksgiving, you’re going to freeze, especially on the roof,” he confides.)

He stopped counting when he reached 10,000 lights, though he’s strung many more. “You keep adding and adding until you say, ‘When is it going to end?’” He bought an arch for a garage (but not the garage), which raised a few eyebrows at the manufacturer. He built a shed in the yard just to hold the decorations during the off-season, and he and Kay have made a pilgrimage to Frankenmuth, Michigan, renowned for selling holiday yard decorations and for hosting a football-field sized display.

In return for his hard work and the occasional risky business stringing lights on the roof, Milt has received numerous lighting awards and even more grateful accolades from those who visit … including some of his former elementary students and their children and grandchildren.

That is reward aplenty for the teacher who retired in 1997. One former student told him last year that her young daughter asked, “Can we go see that wonderful white-light place again?”

Milt figures the electric bill for the month he illuminates his display (basically December) goes up about $100. To be remembered as that “wonderful white-light place” in a child’s memory, he and Kay agree, is well worth the effort and the price.