By Jon Bodell - Dec 5, 2017 | 1 comment

This house on Peterson Circle really takes Christmas lights to another level. The whole roof and all the gutters are completely lined, and there's a tunnel of lights lining the walkway up to the house. We'd hate to see the electric bill this display racks up. JON BODELL / Insider staff

This house on Grove Street features many strings of multicolored, constantly changing lights, plus an illuminated message of "MERRY XMAS." JON BODELL / Insider staff

There's nothing extravagant about this display on Carter Street, but it is eye-catching because of the long horizontal strip of lights running the length of the fence to the side of the house. JON BODELL / Insider staff

This house on Mountain Road is tucked back from the street a little bit, but it's a hidden gem of a Christmas light display. JON BODELL / Insider staff

This house on Pillsbury Street achieves a rustic feel with the combination of soft white lights and loads of garland, wreaths and kissing balls. JON BODELL / Insider staff

This display at the corner of South and Carter streets isn't even at a house, which is why it's pretty cool. We aren't sure if it's on public or private land, but it certainly adds some pop to that part of town. JON BODELL / Insider staff

There’s still no snow on the ground around here, but that hasn’t stopped many of you from getting into the holiday spirit.

Admittedly, we don’t have a real scientific way to gauge the level of holiday spirit in the community, but looking for light and decoration displays is one indicator that’s usually pretty reliable. Given the amount of time, energy and, in many cases, money that goes into some of these displays, we have a hard time imagining anyone rigging up their house without having at least a little twinkle of Christmas cheer in their heart.

So last week we drove around after dark with a camera taking pictures of people’s houses – it sounds a lot creepier than it actually was – looking for some of the biggest, wildest, most extravagant displays we could find.

Interestingly and sadly, the house on Borough Road, legendary in these parts for rivaling the Vegas Strip with its display, was not all decked out when we drove by last week. That doesn’t mean we didn’t find some real gems, though.

Through our travels we saw a bit of everything – over-the-top flashing displays, modest whites, bright neons, inflatable characters, wreaths, laser lights and everything in between.

Here’s some of the best of what we found.