Thumb Christmas light display out-Griswolds all the rest
Joel and Jaime Nicol, on Germania Road in Sanilac County’s Greenleaf
Township. The show runs for 45 minutes every evening through Dec. 31.
(Photo by Zac Deering)
Clark W. Griswold, eat your heart out — a family in Sanilac County’s Greenleaf Township has a holiday light display that puts all others to shame, including that of the fictional, overachiever from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”.
“Nicol’s Christmas Light Extravaganza” is located at 6250 Germania Road, east of Cass City about halfway between M-53 and M-19 and 4 miles south of the Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park.
The work of Joel and Jaime Nicol (with a bit of extra Christmas spirit and excitement provided by their children, Justin, 4, and Jenna, 2), the display is truly something to behold — and recent snows and frigid temps only add to the experience.
But to call it a “display” is not doing Nicol’s Christmas Light Extravaganza justice.
It’s more akin to seeing a fireworks display, or sitting front row at a visually stunning rock concert, as more than 160,000 lights dazzle and dance to the beat of a 45-minute playlist sure to make the smallest of hearts grow three sizes any day.
“I work up in Pigeon…I got people that live in Pigeon, Kinde, Elkton, Port Austin…they come all the way down to see it,” said Kurt Puterbaugh.
Puterbaugh, along with wife, Cari Puterbaugh, and their two-year-old son, braved below-zero windchills and iced-over roads to enjoy the show earlier this week. They live about three miles away.
“We come out every year,” Kurt Puterbaugh said. “It’s been a tradition since they used to do it up the road.” (Read more)
(This story appeared first in the Dec. 17, 2016 print edition of The Tuscola County Advertiser and can be read online in its entirety here.)
