Holley-by-the-Sea couple dazzles onlookers
Holiday lights reach in excess of 86,000
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

This year, Keith and Peggy Elwood of Holley-by-the-Sea added even more lights to their annual display, making a total of 86,671 lights exactly lighting their front and back yards — as well as their roof — during the entire month of December.

Keith and Peggy Elwood’s Holley-by-the-Sea home is known as the House of Christmas Lights around the area during the Christmas season each year. If you didn’t know better, you would think the Elwoods were a couple of Santa’s elves, with the magic they create each year for the community. This year the couple added even more lights to their annual display, making a total of 86,671 lights exactly lighting their front and back yards — as well as their roof — during the entire month of December.

But lights are not the only thing visitors find when they visit the Elwood home any evening in December. There are also moving non-human things, like the 38 mechanical deer, moving angels, a polar bear on skis, a penguin in a snow cap and a train with smoke that moves in lights, to name a few of the colorful decorations.

That’s just some of the Christmas display that thrills folks of every age every Christmas season, and the Elwoods say it is their gift to the community. “We do it for the kids, especially,” Peggy said. “We just love to see how people react and how the kids’ eyes light up when they see everything.”

Peggy and Keith Elwood decorate their Holley-By-The-Sea home each year with thousands of Christmas lights and animated figures.

The Elwoods welcome visitors every evening to their yards, answer any questions people have and are happy to give them guided tours, too. One question, of course, always asked over and over each year is ‘what is your light bill for December?’ Peggy admits their light bill exceeds $500 now each December, but they won’t accept any donations to help with the cost. “People have tried to give us money when they visit, but we aren’t going to take any money from anybody. This is our gift to people of the area. We get as much joy from it as the children do when we see their reactions.”

Another question is usually ‘ where are all the wires?’ You will not find any wires anywhere between the displays or across the yards. Keith spent hours and hours and hours during some very hot summer days a couple years ago burying all the wires underground, so no one has to worry about tripping or watching for wires.

The lights shine at night at the House of Christmas light sin Navarre

This grand display began in 1999, on a much smaller scale. That was the year Holley-By- The-Sea decided to hold a Christmas home decorating contest. Keith’s son brought them the news, and suggested they all enter, since his son also had a home in the Navarre development. “That year we really thought we had done something,” laughs Peggy. “We decorated with 10,000 lights and two mechanical deer. And we won first place. Keith’s son won second place.”

And the display has grown each year from there, spreading now to the back yard, too. The second year the couple used just over 17,000 lights — and won first place again. “They stopped having the contest after about three years, since we were adding lights and wining each year,” Peggy laughs. They have added lights and additions to the display every year since. They begin setting up their display Oct. 1 each year. The lights go on at dark and go off at 10 p.m. from Dec. 1 through Jan. 2 every year.

Kathan Brannon of Navarre has visited the house of Christmas lights in Holley- By-The-Sea every year for the past few years. it is a Christmas tradition for his family. The colorful wooden soldiers, handmade by homeowner Keith Elwood, stands at the driveway entrance to welcome visitors.

Six years ago they decided they should not really have a Christmas display of this size without a Nativity Scene, so they searched for months, trying to find one large enough to be placed front and center of their front yard. They found a fourpiece set that they really didn’t think as quite right, but they bought it and used it, and kept looking. Then two years ago their priest told them the church was going to purchase a new Nativity at Christmas, and would they be interested in having the ‘old’ one. Keith and Peggy jumped at it, and Keith hand-painted the 11-piece set to be exactly how they wanted it. That set now graces the annual display. Keith built the manger for it, also.

There are some Florida and tropical Christmas decorations — like blue Herrons in Santa caps, and each of the eight tall palm trees in the yard topped in a large lighted star. “People love those stars,” Keith explains. “They come looking for those stars every year. We move things around each year, so it is never exactly the same display. But we will never change the stars in those trees.”

They also have a Santa’s Mail Box for children to place their Letters to Santa, guaranteeing that each letter reaches the Elves working in the workshop out back. Children are welcomed to go listen at the door of the Elves’ Workshop, if they so desire.

Keith also hand-made two tall colorful Toy Soldiers who sit at the entrance to the display, at each corner of the driveway. They are made out of clay flower pots. “Kids love to have their picture taken with those soldiers,” Keith said. “That makes it all worth the work that went into them.”

The closer to Christmas it gets, the more cars drive by nightly. But most people cannot fight the urge to stop their car and get out, to walk through the display and listen to how it all began and how it keeps growing.

“We have had people come from all over to see this,” Peggy said. “We have had visitors from this whole panhandle, then people from Mobile and Louisiana, and even people visiting relatives here who are visiting from other countries and want to see the House of Lights before they go home. It is nice to know pictures of our display are in albums and on refrigerators all over the world. And people come back every year, bringing more friends and relatives.

“But it is the children’s eyes that make it all worthwhile and keep us going!”

Story and photos by Pam Brannon

Want to see?

To find the Navarre House of Christmas Lights turn onto Coral, off Hwy. 98 (the road borders the

Tom Thumb next to the eastern most sign for Holley-by-the-Sea), go to the dead end, and turn left

onto Manatee, then turn left at the second road, which is Bayou.

You will see the lights on the

third house on the left.