Homes w/ Best Christmas Light Displays in Balt/Washington Area

[Joe H]

For several decades we have been driving around the Baltimore Washington area looking at Christmas light displays on individual homes or streets.  Tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, we will be doing the same.  Who has the most jaw dropping, traffic snarling and brilliantly glitzy display of all?  A display that will back up traffic for blocks with hundreds milling about and neighbors probably thinking about moving.

Several suggestions for a benchmark:

1.  The Bishop's house in North Portal estates off of 16th street near Eastern.  250,000+ lights?  Dating to the early 60's.  http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2005_DC_Portal

2.  "Christmas Street" which is the 700 block of 34th street in Baltimore.  Almost the whole block and over 60 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_34th_Street_(Baltimore)

3.  "Candy Cane Lane" in Sterling which is E. Juniper street.  A half dozen homes who compete with each other.  http://www.fairfaxchristmaslights.com/tcl2.php?rate=1&xid=1012

4.  "Collingwood Lights" at 1601 Collingwood Lane in Alexandria.  400 "Holy Moly's" on Molly's list! http://www.fairfaxchristmaslights.com/tcl2.php?rate=1&xid=1011

5.  Stones Throw Drive in Reston which competes with the Bishop's House above. http://www.fairfaxchristmaslights.com/tcl2.php?rate=1&xid=1017

6.  6226 Stone Hunt Place in Clifton which has 1,900 "Holy Moly's" on Holly's and where he says the house "took his breath away."\

http://www.fairfaxchristmaslights.com/tcl2.php?rate=1&xid=1015

This is a GREAT website for Northern Virginia homes and streets:  http://www.fairfaxchristmaslights.com/tcl.php

...and the same person did a similar website for suburban Maryland: http://www.fairfaxchristmaslights.com/mtcl.php

The Guinness Book of World Records actually has an entree for the home with the most Christmas lights on earth and the winner is in Australia:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2513160/Family-claim-Guinness-World-Record-Christmas-light-display-502-165-flickering-bulbs-neighbours-stopped-speaking-them.html  Over 500,000 lights and some neighbors haven't spoken to them in several years:  70,000 visitors in 2011.

Where else should we be going?

[jayandstacey]

If you want in on a Christmas House IPO, check out 202 Little Quarry Rd in Gaithersburg MD.  The scale is very small - the lot isn't much bigger than a townhouse's, yet the show is pretty big.  He's programmed the lights to an hour's worth of music that plays over a speaker and over low power FM.

Each year I take my kids out "looking for Christmas".  We've been to most every drive-thru display in the area, as well as the Christmas block in Baltimore and others.  With the combination of computer controls, cheap lights and lower wattage (lower power bills) - the options are expanding fast - and that's a good, fun thing.

I'd like to see our local drive-through show at Seneca Creek State Park take a slightly different turn...where they allow juried displays in certain areas.  My idea:  Have maybe 8 areas where local people/groups can create and display their own holiday light creations.   There would be a competition for the spots so only the best would be displayed.  Just sayin

[ktmoomau]

We did a tacky light tour of Richmond from Charlottesville, and that was a lot of fun.  Don't know where they got the route, but seemed to be a lot of limos and mini-buses in on it.  I should do the fairfax tacky light one by limo next year!

[thistle]

I have to recognize Edwards Landing Lights - https://www.facebook.com/EdwardsLandingLights

I haven't seen them in person, but they brought me Gangnam style Halloween lights....

Here's 'Sail'- AWOL Nation- http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhzzta-bJ_s&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DUhzzta-bJ_s

[Dr. Delicious]

There's a house on Idylwood Street between Great Falls St and Route 7 that does a huge display every year. People are welcome (encouraged?) to get out of their cars and enter the property to take in the full effect (tho I never have). I believe it is also done to help raise money to fight leukemia.

[DonRocks]

There's a house on Idylwood Street between Great Falls St and Route 7 that does a huge display every year. People are welcome (encouraged?) to get out of their cars and enter the property to take in the full effect (tho I never have). I believe it is also done to help raise money to fight leukemia.

About ten years ago, there was a house near there that had a Bugs Bunny helicopter on the roof and a dog sitting in a police car in the driveway with a microphone hooked up (where the owner spoke from the inside of the house). Each year, the McLean Fire Department would send Santa on a fire truck. This isn't the one, is it?

When I was growing up, we'd drive to see one particular house every year in Kemp Mill, but this was decades ago.