St. Michael Home Boasts 20,000 Individual Lights

Rodney Duerr has always loved decorating his house for Christmas and this year was no exception.

Many St. Michael residents happily discovered Rodney Duerr's light display when the construction on the one-way pair was completed a few years ago. Duerr has always loved to decorate his house with lights, and grew up lighting the house as a child at his parents' house. This year, his 22-year-old daughter, Jessica, asked him to keep track of how many he actually hung. "It's been growing for quite a few years," Duerr said. "There are 20,000 individual lights out there." A project and display like this takes time, he said. Duerr starts putting them up the first weekend in November and adds lights each weekend thereafter. "It's a lot of fixing and replacing lights that burn out," he said. The home had previously been in the middle of a quiet …

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Check Out the Best 'Decked' House in St. Michael, Albertville

You voted and this house was the top local vote-getter in our Deck the House contest.

Who has the best “decked” house in St. Michael and Albertville? According to users who voted in our annual Deck the House contest, Kelly Duncan's Albertville home has the best holiday lights in town. Duncan submitted a photo of her house to Patch's Deck the House contest in early December. Congratulations to the Duncan household, with holiday spirit both inside and outside their house! Although the Duncan house didn't make it into the 25 finalists nationwide, the community can still vote for the country's winner.  We had tons of national entries in this year’s Deck the House contest and in our quest to find the most over-the-top holiday decorations in the country, we’ve seen everything from a life-size Santa to holiday lights so bright …

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Enter Patch's “Deck the House” Contest, Chance to Win $100,000 for St. Michael-Albertville Schools

Did you decorate your house for the holidays this year? Enter our "Deck the House" contest and you could win $100,000 for your school district, and/or $500 to pay your electric bills!

Enter Patch's “Deck the House" Contest, Chance to Win $100,000 for St. Michael-Albertville Schools

Did you decorate your house for the holidays this year? Enter our "Deck the House" contest and you could win $100,000 for your school district, and/or $500 to pay your electric bills!

Enter Patch's “Deck the House” Contest, Chance to Win $100,000 for St. Michael-Albertville Schools

Did you decorate your house for the holidays this year? Enter our "Deck the House" contest and you could win $100,000 for your school district, and/or $500 to pay your electric bills!

Patch is launching our annual Deck the House Contest to find the most over-the-top holiday decorations in America—the best “decked” house in the country—the one home so spectacularly decorated that everyone in town jokes your holiday decorations could rival Rockefeller Center’s. If this sounds like your house, upload a photo or video of your home to our contest page from Nov. 26 to Dec. 16 to deckthehouse.patch.com/contest/stmichael. Videos cannot contain music. Only residents of Patch towns are eligible to enter. We’ll select 24 regional finalists, and from them, pick one grand prize winner. Patch will pay up to $500 of the utility bill for each finalist, while our national winner will have $100,000 donated to his or her local school …

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Albertville Light Display Blows Fans Away

Through lights and nostalgic "blow mold" decorations, Albertville's Wirtz family has built a display even Clark Griswold would love.

It started, Dan Wirtz said, one year when he found a Nativity scene and two candles to light up his small Twin Cities yard.  Today, the Writz household has a huge Nativity scene, and more than 150 other blow mold style decorations lighting up his Albertville home, making it a local favorite around the holidays.  "I think it's so cool," Dan said of the parade of cars passing the home the 5600 block of Large Avenue. "One day, we looked out and here was this huge bus. Everyone was looking. You could see little flash bulbs going off inside it. That's neat for me."  It's the payoff for hours of hard work and preparation. The blow molds (plastic molded into figures such as Santa Claus, toy soldiers or even Snoopy) hang by a hook in the rafters …

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Get Out: A Holiday Lights Map for St. Michael, Albertville Area

The lights are out in the St. Michael Area. We'll get you started on a tour of the town. Feel free to add your own ideas here!

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