Lynn home outshines competition

LYNN – Sitting at the top of a secluded dead-end on Oak Ridge Road in Lynn, there is a home that is so incredibly decked out in Christmas lights that visitors might want to consider wearing protective eyewear in order to admire the festive home.And for their effort, the owners, Ray and Christine O’Blenes of 35 Oak Ridge Road, are the winners of this year’s inaugural Daily Item Holiday Lights Contest.Christine O’Blenes says her family has been decorating the home as a Christmas tradition for the past 12 years since they have lived there. She says they used to decorate their previous home in Lynn, but had to stop because of Christmas thieves.”We love to decorate our home for Christmas and we’re very happy that we have the ability to do it where we live now,” she says. “People kept stealing things from our yard at the last place we lived. That’s sad. We had to stop decorating because of that.”O’Blenes says her family begins decorating the home right after Halloween.”We’ll spend a couple days doing it. We usually dedicate a whole weekend to decorating,” she said. “We’ll be out there from early in the morning until it gets dark.”She adds that her son’s occupation is beneficial for the process.”Our son is an electrician,” she said. “That definitely helps. He and my husband do all the electrical work. They aren’t afraid to get up on the roof to put lights and decorations up there.”The house resembles an illuminated gingerbread house, but instead of frosting holding it together the O’Blenes residence has lights strung in every corner.O’Blenes says she estimates that her home has more than 40,000 lights.”I tried counting bulbs one year but had to stop because I realized I would have been counting all day,” she says. “I can’t even keep track of the number of boxes of decorations we have.”The yard is a true winter wonderland, clad in everything lit from Santa and Mrs. Claus to all nine reindeer to snowmen, snowflakes, candy canes, wreaths, kissing balls and even a Christmas cow. A cute sign on the side of the fence in the front yard asks Santa to stop there while also directing visitors “this way to toyland” and “this way to the North Pole.”O’Blenes says decorating for Christmas tacks an additional $400 onto the electricity bill.”It’s just an investment we enjoy making,” she said. “It makes people smile.”She says people from out of town often visit their home.”We had a guy here from Malden last week that said he comes to see the house every year,” she said. “Families come by with their kids, too. If we see kids outside, we go outside and hand out candy. We love visitors.”O’Blenes says the neighbors never complain about their extreme decorating. In fact, they encourage the family to continue. “The neighbors like the fact that we go all out,” she said. “They ask us every year if we’ll be decorating. It’s a tradition. I think they would be sad if we didn’t.”The home next to the O’Blenes doesn’t have a trace of Christmas decorations, except for the illuminated snowflake banner that is attached from the O’Blenes roof.”They’re actually away right now in Florida,” said O’Blenes, when asked why she thinks the family doesn’t decorate. “They give us permission to use part of their land for our decorations. They’re very nice.”She says the family has acquired their decorations after years of collecting them, but adds to the display each year.”We buy a little something new each year,” she said. “We had to replace a lot of the bulbs this year so we focused on that. We can’t add too much each year because we have to work with the space we have.”The O’Blenes received a $200 gift certificate to Lucia Lighting & Design in Lynn as their first place prize.”That’s wonderful,” said O’Blenes. “I hope they sell Christmas lights,” she said between laughter.