Georgetown house with ornate Christmas decorations attracts neighbors

With Christmas around the corner, it is not uncommon for people to deck out their homes and trees in colorful lights to get into the holiday mood. But one Georgetown resident is leaving his neighbors in awe.

When the sun sets on Travis Roberts’ home at 146 Dunn Circle, , about 60,000 Christmas lights illuminate the residence, drawing on-lookers from throughout Scott County.

Roberts, a senior manufacturing engineer at Big Ass Solutions in Lexington, said he and his dad, Mike, had been setting up Christmas lights for about the past decade. But the light show became more expansive about three to four years ago.

“It just turned into a hobby,” he said.

Roberts’ father died of bladder cancer in May 2014. Now he hangs up the lights with his wife and three daughters — two in elementary school and the third in middle school.

“I’m trying to show them how if you put your mind to anything, you can do it,” Roberts said.

Roberts said he began putting up his Christmas lights two weeks before Halloween and finished a few days before Thanksgiving, working on the display for a few hours a day.

“It’s not eight hours a day, because I work a full-time job and have three little kids, so (I’m) pretty busy,” he said.

Roberts uses an FM transmitter, microprocessors and computer software called Light-O-Rama to synchronize the lights to a short range radio station.

Roberts said he plans to keep the display up through Christmas, but doesn’t plan to keep it up for much longer after the holiday.

“After Christmas, if it’s 60 degrees outside, I’m out there taking it down,” he said, citing the neighborhood association and possible snow for his speedy removal.

Roberts said the lightshow will begin around 5:30 p.m. each day and will turn off around 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. or 11:30 on weekends.

Among the bevy of lights, there is a sign that tells passing motorists to tune to 88.7 FM and a sentence that reads “in memory of Mike Roberts.”

Roberts said he enjoys seeing the bevy of motorists and young kids stand outside his house and look at his display.

“I get a lot of ‘thank yous’ from people,” he said. “I get a lot of comments like when I come home or stuff. It’s nice to see the kids hanging out the windows looking at it.”

Brittanie Brown, a Georgetown resident, found out about the display several years ago because she goes to the same church as Roberts.

“It’s pretty impressive,” she said

Brown was accompanied by her two children and her nephew.

Allen Johnson, who lives in the same neighborhood as Roberts, was sitting inside a car with his 3-year-old grandson watching the display Thursday night.

Johnson said he first saw Roberts putting up the Christmas light decorations about two years ago while he was walking throughout the neighborhood.

“It’s awesome,” Johnson said of the display. “I mean, it’s just fantastic.”

Jason Wright, a Stamping Ground resident, pointed out Roberts’ patience to put all of the Christmas lights up.

“I bet his electric bill is expensive,” he said. “It’s good though. I like it.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2016 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Georgetown house with ornate Christmas decorations attracts neighbors."