Together: Three, two, one!
Let it snow!
Narrator: Have your "elf" a merry little Christmas...
This is elf-tastic!
Narrator: ...as more families drive... [ Horn honks ]
Woman: This is our community parade!
Taniya: Yeah!
...to winterize their wonderlands.
It is snowing lights here.
And Judge Taniya Nayak... Whoo!
This is adorable.
Narrator: ...awards our $50,000 prize.
Boom! Nice!
So get ready for a real treat...
Something smells really yummy over here.
...because "The Great Christmas Light Fight"...
This is epic.
...is on!
Santa, we are on a time crunch.
I leave in the morning.
[ Laughter ]
[ Electricity crackling ]
♪♪
[ Bells jingle ]
♪♪
Both: We're the Loders!
Welcome to Elf Town...
Where elves are everywhere.
[ Laughter ] Hey!
Have him kind of looking down toward the hot tub.
We are the liaisons for Elf Town.
The whole town is centered around elves,
and we didn't go out and buy a town.
We made a town.
Imagine Santa's Sweet Shoppe.
Come up here to visit the Ski Shop.
[ Electricity crackling ]
We found a welding coach and spent a couple of months
learning to weld.
David: That's a pretty weld.
Thank you.
So you'll never see any place like Elf Town.
Elf Town is very elf-nique. Elf-nique. [ Laughs ]
Now all we need is a little elf magic.
Pow!
Wow!
This is our love and our hobby.
And so it's a really nice thing to create things together.
Elf frosting goes on pink and it turns white.
You want to know why?
Yes. Tell me why.
Because it's magical!
[ Laughs ]
I thought it was huge when it started.
You know, it felt huge.
So it's really cool to see Elf Town to what it's grown to.
Cake delivery. The elves are gonna love that. Cake delivery.
What's your favorite part of Elf Town?
Being an elf.
Man: Oh.
All aboard!
♪ Da, da-da, da ♪
Melissa: Taniya sees a lot of the world's best displays.
We want her to come and say,
"Wow. I have never seen anything like this before."
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
Heeeey!
Hey, hey!
Hi! Hi, everyone!
Merry Christmas!
Oh, what's up, you guys?
Hello. Yes!
Whoo! Wow!
Welcome! Hi.
Welcome. Thank you.
Welcome.
Hi. Merry Christmas, everybody.
-Merry Christmas. -Merry Christmas.
Whoo! So we're the Loders.
I'm Melissa, and this is my husband, David.
And we want to welcome you to Elf Town.
Yes! Elf Town? Yes.
Okay, well, you know something?
I see a lot of little elves around here.
We have lots of elves around here. Yes.
So in 2011, we had a little knock at the door,
and these little elves were there.
They said, "We think you guys have great holiday spirit.
We want to build Elf Town in your yard
as our southern workstation."
That is so nice.
Well, we thought so. So we said, "Sure." Yes.
And we started to notice after a few years
that when they would come in, we would get ridiculously happy.
And the next thing you know...
Okay.
...we morphed. So every fall, this happens.
Okay.
So we have to give you a warning --
Going into Elf Town, you never know what's gonna happen.
Oh, boy. Here's the deal.
Elves are a little skittish,
and so they're gonna have a little test for you.
And what they what they want you to do
is to have you complete this toy train
by hammering the smokestack in.
And when the lights come on, it goes in Santa's bag.
And if it's acceptable, Elf Town will illuminate.
I am so excited.
I'm ready to learn new things. Come on. Okay. Ready? Come on in.
Then come on in.
Oh, that's good. Taniya Express. So...
Melissa: Taniya Express. The Taniya Express.
So what are we gonna say?
We're counting down from three.
"Three, two, one. Elf Town."
Got it, everyone?
-Yeah! -Yeah!
Let's do it.
Together: Three, two...
one!
Elf Town!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah!
[ Cheers and applause ]
It worked! David: And it works!
[ Cheers and applause continues ]
This is elf-tastic!
I never knew elves could be so big. Melissa: Welcome to Elf Town.
This is cool. They come in all shapes and sizes.
Incredible. That's the mayor of Elf Town. That's Elfis.
That is the biggest elf I've ever seen.
It's a 20-footer.
And you've got mega trees and trees wrapped in lights.
I see a Ferris wheel.
Yes!
[ Crowd cheering ]
And a great big giant train
choo-chooing across the yard.
Choo-chooing across.
♪♪
And all of these little stations.
I mean, the elves have to work.
This is Main Street. They do.
Ooh, and a little elf tavern.
Okay. Little tavern.
We'll be hitting that up after a long day's work. We will be hitting that. You bet.
And I also noticed in Texas,
you've got a little bit of snow going on.
A little bit. Only in Texas. Just a little bit.
We don't get much, but...
Oh, this is so cool.
Can we go take a look?
Let's go. We can. Let's do it.
Guys, you want to come? Let's go in
and take a look.
Woman: Yay!
♪♪
Man: I like the slide right here with the toys.
Man #2: That's cool.
Hi, Santa. Hi, Santa.
Taniya: Choo-choo!
I have been eyeballing this train from the moment
the display started.
Hey! Whoa! Hey!
Hey! Hey.
-Hey! -Whoo! Hi.
Welcome to the Elf Express.
Oh, my gosh. Come on, boys.
Let's go load the train.
They're always working. What can I say?
-These elves. -Busy elves.
Okay, so this train is huge. It looks life-sized.
David: It's almost 30 feet long. Four cars.
Oh, wow.
And if you notice -- In the toy car, your toy made it.
It passed the muster. Ah, yes!
I like that you have an area right here with the lamppost
that says where everything is... Melissa: Mm-hmm.
...directing you in the town. Right.
[ Hissing ] Even the engine running
sounds like the train is moving. Mm-hmm.
So how did you get the engine to go?
So let me remove the top and you can see how the smoke works.
Oh. This is -- Whoa!
I love the effect with the smoke.
And then if you look under there,
you can see the lawn mower wheels.
And then it's just different automotive belts.
Do you just figure this stuff out?
It's just a lot of trial and error.
Trial, error. Whatever it takes, right?
-Whatever it takes. -Some of everything.
Whatever it takes to get the motor running, baby.
Shall we choo-choo on?
We should choo-choo! All aboard to the next stop.
Choo-choo! All right. Choo-choo!
♪♪
Tell me about the Ferris wheel.
These are my favorite.
David: We like the old school, as you can see.
So we wired it with the traditional Christmas lights.
Yes. The garland and the ornaments. Melissa: Mm-hmm.
It's such a nice touch.
Let me turn this off and you can come around
and see how it works. [ Switch clicks ]
So it spins with an automotive wiper motor.
And then we made the chairs out of corrugated plastic.
Nice.
And then these are just gas pipe, 1/2 inch,
that's screwed in, and we use PVC spacers
to keep it from hitting the lights.
Okay. You figured all that out. And so...
I'm very impressed.
Come on, Taniya. Let's go this way.
More to see.
♪♪
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Yeah.
♪♪
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
Melissa: Okay, I want to introduce you
to somebody very special.
This is the mayor of Elf Town.
His name is Elfis.
He is 20 feet tall
and he is made out of PVC pipe, wire, deco mesh.
It has the look of loofahs, bath loofahs.
Right, right. It's deco mesh
that I take and put in poofs
and then put them on with pipe cleaners.
Do you know how many poofs it takes to make an elf?
Thousands.
Thousands of poofs. Of poofs.
It looks amazing,
the texture and the color. Mm-hmm.
It's poof perfect. It is poof perfect.
And people assume we can't go in our door.
Watch this.
Oh, that is perfect.
It's in four pieces.
So good.
Taniya, we actually have a lot more to show you.
Okay. And just like that, poof!
We're gone.
♪♪
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-Look at that. -Yeah.
Oh, my goodness.
Taniya: Hey, look at this! Ski Shop.
This looks so professional.
I love the design of it.
I love the details that are inside.
Did you guys actually make this?
David: We did. From scratch?
From scratch. From scratch.
One of the neat features is the roof.
Melissa used paracord to come up with the shingles...
Make the shingles. Can you see it? ...with some...
Yeah, that gives it that really elf-y village vibe. Elf-y.
Exactly. Exactly. That's so fun.
Let's head on over to the tavern.
This is adorable.
And it looks like someone's had a few
too many hot chocolates over here.
-Hot Shot. -Hot Shots?
Melissa: It's elf Hot Shot.
Oh, I love this place.
All right. Gonna head down the road in Elf Town
this way.
Okay, so now we're at Elf School,
which it cannot be fun and games all the time.
Melissa: No. No. We have to learn to be an elf. So...
You've created an entire elf village.
The effect is that much more spectacular because of the fact
that fact that you have the snow
covering your entire yard. Mm-hmm.
What is this material?
It's just white Astroturf.
It's Astroturf? Uh-huh.
In white? In white.
And, also, it's dual-purpose. We like the look of it,
but it also covers the cords.
Did the elves teach you that?
They did. They're very good. They did. Right.
Well, I like it. It's a great touch.
Thank you.
♪♪
Ooh, something smells really yummy over here.
Hello! Ooh!
Hi. Welcome to the Sweet Shoppe.
Thank you. You look like you have been baking.
Oh, it's been a busy day.
Our special item is our beautiful cakes made
by my elf aunt Melissa. She worked very hard on them.
I love it.
Melissa: Made these cakes out of construction putty, so...
They look so real and so tasty. So...
they are waterproof, though.
I have to say,
I'm so impressed how you came up with the design
the decoration and this purple.
It all works for what you would imagine
an elf sweet shop would look like. David: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: Nice. We're very glad.
We have one more surprise for you.
A spa! Santa's Spa.
Santa's Spa.
This is great. "No elves allowed."
♪♪
What are you doing here?
[ Electricity crackles, bells jingle ]
We have one more surprise for you.
♪♪
Look! We have a visitor.
Ho ho ho! Santa and Mrs. Claus!
Welcome to my spa.
What are you doing here?
Santa's been kind of down on his back,
so he needed to take a little soak.
I've been working on my health.
But my healthcare's usually pretty good.
I never end up in the hospital
because I have private "elf"-care.
Oh! Good. Very nice.
I did notice that there are no elves allowed.
They're not allowed back here.
No, they're too silly and they make a mess.
Well, I think this is great. You know what?
I agree with you -- Self-care is everything.
-It is. It truly is. -Absolutely.
However, Santa, we are on a time crunch.
I leave in the morning.
Okay. [ Laughter ]
This is a great surprise.
I love that you decorated this entire spot...
Melissa: Mm-hmm. ...with lights all around.
It's wonderful.
I did notice, by the way --
You're gonna need a little more tightened security.
I see some elves peeking over.
-Oh, those little rascals. -Oh, yes.
All right. We'll let you guys soak in peace.
Thank you. Merry Christmas.
-Merry Christmas to you. -Merry Christmas.
Bye. Ho ho ho!
Bye.
Taniya: This display was so much fun.
I got a chance to get an inside peek
at how these elves live their life.
They have everything,
from education, to work, to play,
even food and beverages.
This display just had me feeling a little bit different,
but I can't really seem to put a finger on it.
[ Ting! ]
So many funny surprises and good times.
I felt so welcomed into Elf Town.
This has been an incredible experience
and we had a blast with you.
Good. Well, I have to get going. We loved it.
Big hug. Absolutely.
Merry Christmas.
Safe travels.
Bye. Happy holidays. Bye.
Melissa: She was pretty elf-tastic.
Yep.
That was so fun. Yeah, it was.
♪♪
Together: Merry Christmas! We're the Perez family!
Welcome to Meemaw's magical Christmas wonderland!
-Whoo! -Yay!
Terri: Donna, lookit. The curtains. Donna: Yeah?
The wind blew them all the way up.
[ Gasps ] Oh, my gosh. Lookit. All the way over Santa.
I started this about 10 years ago and I'm learning as I go.
Every year, I learn something new.
We use a pulley system for all of these items
that go really high.
I want just every square inch covered.
They don't have to be perfect perfect,
but they have to look like a nice set
of curtains hanging down.
I have what I call the wall of curtains.
It goes about 23 feet high.
Hold on, hold on. Okay.
I almost got it.
Oh. You do? Awesome.
Oh! Did you get it?
No. Oh.
[ Laughter ]
Even the ground has lights.
I made 50-some nets that create the snow scene over my grass.
I zip-tie these to my rolls of plastic.
This year, I used 11,000 zip ties.
I think I'm a zip tie expert.
I do this display mostly for my grandchildren.
I have 13 of them.
That looks cool, huh, Maverick?
What does it look like, Maverick?
A lollipop's head. Exactly.
Brayde: Ever since I was young, we've always bonded over it,
the whole family.
And honestly, it's just -- It's magical.
Hold on. It's not staying.
[ Exclaims, laughs ]
Yeah!
Terri: I would say I probably spend about five months out
of the year creating my display.
Okay. Oh. [ Groans ]
Oh, Tom. I knew I'd miss. [ Laughs ]
-Tom! -That's all right, honey.
Don't worry.
Even if it broke, I have extras.
Every day,
from waking up to going to bed,
it's just lights, lights, lights, lights, lights.
Sometimes it'll be midnight. She'll still be out there.
I'll say, "You really have to come in now.
You'll look like a crazy person if you stay out all night long."
[ Laughter ]
Terri: I will be out there until very late.
And sometimes I hear people out there.
So I kind of hide a little bit and don't let them see me.
I don't want to be the crazy light lady.
[ Laughs ]
You guys made these so wonderfully.
It makes me want to eat one.
[ Laughs ] Later.
Later. Later.
After Taniya sees them, huh? Yep.
When I turn the lights on, the feeling I get is indescribable.
It's the power of peace and happiness and joy and magic.
It's the magic of Christmas.
Yeah!
♪♪
-Here comes Taniya. -Oh, my God!
Man: Whoo! Whoa!
I can't believe it!
Oh, my goodness! What?! I can't bel-- Oh!
What? What? You're more beautiful in person.
Thank you. Huh?
You're just so gorgeous. Oh, my gosh.
Look who's talking, girlfriend.
I just can't... Look at this.
Whoo! I can't believe you're here.
What's your name?
Terri. These are my children
and two of my grandchildren.
And this is my husband, Tom.
Tom. Hi. Hi. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thanks, everybody. [ Crowd cheering ]
I started doing this for my grandchildren.
We have 13 grandchildren.
Whoa! Lucky 13. Man: Yeah.
So with 13 grandchildren,
there's a lot of other grandmas I compete with.
Yeah, I bet.
And so I had to make it really spectacular
so the grandkids always say, "We want to go
to Meemaw's house for Christmas." Yes. I love it.
[ Laughter ]
I have everything hooked up by one command. Okay.
Would you like to ask Santa to let it snow?
I would. Out here in California?
Absolutely. Santa lets it snow. I mean...
Would you guys like to see it snow? Man: We're ready. We're ready.
-Yeah! -Whoo!
Well, let's count it down.
Together: In three, two, one!
Santa, let it snow!
[ Crowd cheering ]
Oh, my goodness!
Santa, let it snow!
[ Crowd cheering ]
Yes!
Wow!
Look at this!
Oh, my goodness! Woman: Oh, my gosh.
You have filled in every single part of your lawn,
your driveway, your house with lights. Terri: Everywhere.
It is snowing lights here.
It's, like, sparkling like your jacket.
This is incredible!
I see every color of the rainbow here.
Did you take crayons and color in
this entire yard? Yeah.
Yes? That's what it looks like.
Terri: Taniya, would you like to take a tour?
I'd love to show you all the lights.
I want to see every single one of them.
I will show you everything! I can't wait! Okay.
All right. Come on, guys. Let's go.
-Whoo! -Whoo!
Oh, my gosh. These angels are new.
Man: That's cool.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Terri: The ground almost vibrates, doesn't it,
with all those lights? Taniya: Yeah. Yeah.
Absolutely. -Wow.
I will tell you -- This is epic.
Epic. So many lights, Terri.
Terri: Yes, that's my goal -- to have everything I can
packed very tightly with lights.
What I do is, I buy 50-foot-wide rolls of plastic grids. Yes.
And I take strands of lights and I lay them out,
and every two lights, I put a zip tie.
We have a lot of trees, and we get a lot of leaves.
Yes. And we have to blow the leaves.
And this way, the lights stay where they're supposed to be...
Okay. ...and not blow away.
Yes. You are redefining grandma chic, okay,
because, you know, there's a lot of grandmas
that like to knit or crochet sweaters.
This, Grandma?
I feel like you've knitted a blanket of lights here.
Exactly. Our snowflakes that you see here.
Yes.
My son made them out of coat hangers.
Plastic coat hangers. Whoa! Really?
Yes. That is the coolest DIY.
Yes. It's so cool. Really. You would never know.
I love that.
♪♪
So these lights here --
I've always had lights bordering
so people will walk through the lights.
But when I had synthetic lawn put in,
we couldn't put holes in it.
So to hold these lights on the pathway,
I get a plastic pot... Okay.
...and I fill it with cement.
What? That's cement?
And then I flip it over,
and through the little hole in the pot,
I put PVC and let it dry. Oh.
And then we paint it and stripe it like a candy cane.
So clever.
And we call these our toilet brush holders.
What? Why?
They look like a toilet brush. Yeah.
There's so many lights, so many colors.
And best of all, a lot of DIY.
So I'm loving what you've done with this space.
Thank you. It's been -- Yeah.
It's been a labor of love.
And we love it. I can tell.
Yes.
♪♪
I'd like to show you something
that my lovely grandchildren have made. Hi. What's going on?
So this is a lollipop garden.
We've actually been actually been spending a lot of time
building this together, me and him.
Taniya: I've never seen healthier,
more beautiful lollipops growing out of a garden before.
How did you make them?
I wrap the tape on a pool noodle
and stick the bow on the PVC pipe.
It's perfect.
And I did the lights. You did?
What a great job. Boom! Nice!
All right, well, thank you, guys. Brayde: Of course.
I better go before I start plucking them
and taking them with me. [ Laughs ]
♪♪
Ah! Look at this!
Look who's there.
[ Laughs ] Get over here! Get over. Little guys.
Hi. Hi. Hi. -They're puppies.
Hi, there. Hi, my little angel.
You have me at dogs, but I will say,
as much as they are stealing the show right now,
this is adorable.
It's a swing, but it looks like a gondola.
Yes, my daughter designed it and painted it,
and my son Tony cut all of those out himself. Nice.
We wanted a little backdrop to a snow scene.
This was really clever.
I've never seen anybody turn a swing set into a gondola.
The trees. Yeah, we thought that would be fun and...
And you have all the snow all around.
All the snow and our skis on the side.
Yeah. You guys look great.
Hi, guys. And I love this whole setup.
Let me show you our snowman family.
Taniya: Oh. So cute.
And they're in their winter wonderland here.
And it's snowing on them.
And they are the end of our tunnel here... Okay.
...that the kids love to go through.
This is how we dress the driveway up.
This is so fun.
We love it.
♪♪
Hey. What's happening? Hey. What's going on?
I love this. Tell me what's happening here.
Well, we have our candy cane towers...
Yes. ...that have about 2,000 lights on each.
And this is -- Yeah. I believe it.
It's dense. Densely wrapped, just like the whole yard.
-Yeah. -Here you go, Taniya.
Aww. Thank you. You're welcome.
Terri: So every year, the children, when they come here... Uh-huh.
...they get to select a candy cane from the gingerbread house.
I bet they love that. Oh, they love it.
But there's one more thing they really love. Yeah?
When it snows in Danville.
-Oh! Look at that! -Whoa!
Brayde: Oh, man. Oh, that's perfect.
So you were not kidding when you said...
It really snows in Danville. ..."Let it snow."
Oh, that's so fun.
-Yay! -Yay!
Man: All right! [ Group cheering ]
This is like Christmas from where I'm from.
[ Laughter ]
Taniya: Terri's display is like a pot
of your grandma's favorite stew.
It has everything in it
that fills your heart and fills your soul.
She had playful moments, elegant moments.
This has all of the ingredients of a perfect display.
The moment the lights turned on,
I felt truly like it was snowing Christmas lights.
Terri: Oh, yes. That's our goal --
is to have every square inch covered in Christmas lights.
You did. You know?
And to be able to bring this kind of joy
to this amazing family and my grandkids and to the community,
it's beautiful.
Christmas at Meemaw's has always been unlike any other.
But then to see the community also appreciate
what she's done has just been
really sweet and rewarding. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, thank you for having me.
We love you. Oh, I love you, too.
We really mean that.
Oh, thank you so much.
Thank you, Taniya. Merry Christmas, everybody.
Man: Bye, Taniya. Bye.
-Bye. -Bye.
Terri: Good job, everybody. Good job.
Whoo! [ Clapping ]
[ Electricity crackling, bells jingle ]
[ Electricity crackles, bells jingles ]
[ Drum cadence plays ]
♪♪
[ "Anchors Aweigh" plays ]
Together: We're the Cadets!
And I'm the Commander of Christmas.
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
Hey, Dave, come take a look at this.
Look at this. It's actually a real flag. It's beautiful.
That -- That really enhanced it. Yeah.
With the name Commander of Christmas,
someone might ask, "Why? How do you get a name like that?"
When we learned about his service and being a veteran,
we decided to call him the Commander of Christmas.
And if the community is the ones that he's commanding,
why don't we call ourselves the Christmas Community Cadets?
The flag for our veterans and the lights for our community.
Yes, sir.
Let's secure this arm.
Dave: I'm a veteran of the Air Force,
and my experience actually going through tech school
taught me about electricity.
Did we plug that one in? No, we didn't.
This one's in it. Oh. Oh, this one's out.
No, you're right.
I use my electrical experience to do the display.
Man: Those triangles weren't up there last year.
Oh, they were up here, weren't they?
The triangles were on the peaks.
About three years ago, my balance, oh, it was so terrible,
and climbing up on that roof, I had to stop.
Dave: Let me get a tool for you.
Thank you. You didn't get on a ladder.
Thank you.
Nate, he says, "You're not gonna stop.
We're gonna do the lights for you.
You just tell us where you want them."
What do you think, Dave? Looks good?
Looks good. Good.
And he says, "No, no."
He goes, "I don't want to put anyone else out.
I'm gonna go ahead and shut it down after this season."
And I kind of laughed and looked at him.
I said, "I think we misunderstood each other."
I said, "I wasn't asking you. I'm telling you." Adele: That's right.
Yeah. "We're gonna decorate for you.
All you have to do is point. That's right.
And we'll put everything where you want it,
because we can't have you shut this down."
Yeah.
Line them up.
That one needs to come in a hair. This way?
No. Your other one. This one here?
Yes.
It takes a lot of people to do something like this.
We've got probably 15, to 25, to 30 people
that go all in every season to help make this happen with Dave.
-How's this look, Dave? -Everything looks good.
Like it? Good job, guys.
Thank you. Good. Love it.
Adele: He says that he does it for the smiles.
But through doing all of this, we have made friendships.
Whew! We have met our neighbors.
We have become a community.
It's just created this awesome place to live.
And it's all because of him.
-Almost done. -Taniya's gonna love this.
We love you, Dave. Love you, Dave.
Love you, Dave.
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
Man: Hey!
[ Cheers and applause continues ]
Hi!
Oh, my gosh! Hello.
Hey. How are you? Hi. I'm good.
My goodness. Oh, merry Christmas to you.
My name is Dave.
I'm Commander of the Christmas Lights.
Excellent.
And this is Nate, second-in-command.
Hi. How are you doing?
We are the Christmas Community Cadets. Yeah.
Yeah! Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I'm sensing a little theme here.
And I see "U.S. Air Force."
Are you a veteran? Yeah. I'm a veteran.
Thank you for your service. Oh, that was a lot of years ago.
That's okay. I still thank you for your service. Yep.
How long have you been doing this?
19 years. 19.
But then it just got harder and harder, you know,
and then -- till Nate came along and started helping.
Are you a neighbor or are you related?
Yeah, yeah. We're all neighbors here. He's a neighbor.
That's great. I love that. Yeah.
We all do this for Dave and for his heart and our love for him
and the joy he's brought to this community.
Yes! Dave! Let's hear it for him! [ Cheers and applause ]
Woman: Whoo-hoo!
I'm gonna get tears in my eyes.
Aww. Woman: We love you, Dave.
Yeah!
[ Cheers and applause ]
This is the best display of neighborly love I've ever seen. Dave: Yeah. But...
Well, it takes a community to decorate a house like this.
And so it takes a community to fire it up.
Okay. So, everyone, man your stations.
[ Crowd cheering ] All right!
That's definitely an army right there.
Yeah.
[ Laughs ]
[ Amplified ] All right. Is everybody ready?
Together: Yes, sir!
Stand by for countdown. All right.
I'm gonna hand this over to you guys to do the countdown. All right. Amazing.
Let's count down from three. Three...
Together: Two, one!
♪♪
Yes! [ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah! Oh, my gosh!
Three...
Together: Two, one!
♪♪
Yes! [ Cheers and applause ]
Nate: Yeah!
Wow!
Oh, my gosh!
This is beautiful!
Your house kind of looks like a gingerbread house to me.
Yeah.
It's chock-full of goodness.
The cars are spectacular.
Dave: Isn't that something? Huh? Unbelievable.
And something also unique.
Something different.
Thank you.
I love all of these Christmas trees and rainbow colors
and the snowflakes on the tree.
I love the way you did the display.
It's so intricate.
This year is probably the best because of the help.
It is gorgeous. The neighbors and the neighbors.
I'm getting emotional myself
just seeing the love in all that you've put through.
I know you're crying.
I'm crying. We're all crying over here.
There's something really, really special about this
that's just hitting straight to the heart.
Well, that was my goal years ago... Yeah.
...to make the people smile. That was my goal.
I feel like you accomplished that goal.
I would like to get in there.
Would you mind taking me in to see it?
No. Come on. All right, come on, you guys.
Come on. Come on. Let's all go.
Watch out for this. All right.
Let's go. Let's go. Come on. Come on.
This is beautiful.
♪♪
This is amazing. Do you love it?
I like Santa. You like the Santa?
And what do you think of Mr. Dave?
He's amazing. Amazing. One cool guy, huh?
Yeah. Yes.
♪♪
Dave: See the red, white, and blue?
Yeah. And the flag?
I did this for the veterans.
I really, really liked airfield lighting.
And I was 21 years old,
and they put me in charge at March Air Base --
airfield lighting.
Is this where you developed a passion for lights?
That's exactly right, believe it or not. Yeah.
How old are you now?
85. Yeah. 85.
We're talking about 64 years of experience
that you have working with lights. Right. Right.
Which is why this is no surprise.
Yeah.
Nate: All right, Taniya, if you'd like to see more,
we can head this way.
Come on, Dave. [ Laughing ] Okay.
Oh, boy.
Taniya: What's happening?
I feel like I'm just surrounded by Christmas love right here.
Adele: That's right. Well, this is where it all began.
We saw in the news
that Dave was not gonna put out his display anymore.
And Nate told Dave, "We're doing this." "Too bad."
Yeah. And the whole community
is a part of this display now.
And, Taniya, some of these decorations
are 20 to 30 years old... Oh, wow.
...such as this nutcracker.
And when something breaks around here,
we don't get rid of it.
We just find ways to fix it.
We have a special snowman, and as you can see here,
he has a doorstopper for a nose.
It's the imperfections that make it so perfect.
It really does.
Nate: If you'll come this way,
we want to show you something else really cool.
This is just to show some of the creativity
that Dave has of building things and his ingenuity.
Instead of putting hundreds of little nails
or anything in the stucco of his house... Taniya: Right.
...this is a frame that's just been built to hug the stucco
and pops right off.
How is it stuck?
He made it tight enough to hug and just hang.
It's not the stucco that made it stuck.
Yeah. It's Dave that made it stuck.
Exactly. That is cool.
And I actually really like the classic, vintage look
of the lattice and the faceted bulbs.
Absolutely. That is great.
♪♪
Hey, Dave. Hey, handsome.
Were you putting up more lights?
No, this is it. This is it. This is it.
So this is something else that Dave built himself.
This, as you can see, is a garage door,
which is probably the most complicated thing
to decorate for people. Right.
I mean, you can't put screws in it.
You can't -- You know, there's no way
to really fasten things to a garage door.
So what Dave did is, he actually put eye hooks up here... Oh. I see that.
...that just pop right down as one whole unit.
That is great.
There it is. Oh.
And it looks pretty lightweight, too.
It's very lightweight.
Well done. Looks great.
♪♪
Let's check out the cars now.
Oh, I have been waiting for this.
This is so cool.
What a great way to light up the driveway.
It's a regular string of lights,
but we're just using painter's tape and clear suction cups.
From there, because of the lights
and because it's dark out,
you can't see that tape at all.
You can't. Nate: Yeah.
The tape won't do damage to the vintage car,
but it is also holding up in the cold.
Yeah. So that was smart,
but I think it was also really smart
to make it the foreground for the display.
And it speaks to every bit
of this whole classic, vintage vibe. Yeah.
Yeah. Dave's vintage. The cars are vintage. Beautiful.
It just -- It all brings right back to Dave.
Did you just say Dave is vintage?
I did. I think you did.
In the best way. [ Laughs ]
Taniya: This community not only shines a light on this display,
but they also shine the light on Dave.
85 years old,
and everything that he does, he does it out of love.
He does it for the community.
You can just feel it.
What a night.
How much fun has this been, huh?
This has been a lot of fun. Aww.
You guys are truly incredible. Oh, my goodness. A lot of fun.
I love the Christmas lights,
the colors you use. It's so inviting.
I know it's deeper than just putting up Christmas lights. Oh, yeah.
The notion of bringing the community together
is so strong here. Mm-hmm.
Nate: It's been awesome.
It's a cool experience to be able to see
how happy it makes him. Oh, it does.
He's done a lot for us
and we just want to be able to give back.
I can see that everybody gets emotional
when we talk about this, Dave.
We just love Dave. We love him. Yeah.
He's a legend.
Woman: He is. He is the staple of our community.
Adele: Yeah.
Nate: Being this community,
and everything's done by the community,
we have to send you off in style
with a community send-off. -Yeah.
Okay. Are you ready?
I'm ready. All right. Bring it in!
[ Horn honking ]
Bring it in! Oh! You're kidding!
Get out of here. Yeah!
[ Group cheering ]
Dave: Hey! What?
-Oh. -This is our community parade.
Yeah! Woman: Yay!
That is incredible. Look at these guys!
Hey! Whoo!
-Oh, my goodness. -Yeah!
[ Honk honks ] Dave: Hey! Yay!
I did not expect this.
This is awesome.
Oh, my goodness.
Nate: Your chariot has arrived.
Wait, before I go, I need more hugs. Ohh.
Get in here! Oh, get in here. Get in here!
Oh, you guys are amazing. Woman: Thank you.
Bye. Merry Christmas. Goodbye.
Merry Christmas!
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
Wow.
Oh, cool. Boy, what a day, huh?
Hop on in. Riding out with style.
There we go. Thank you.
This is the best display of community love.
I've seen some really cool displays,
but only one can be the champion
of "The Great Christmas Light Fight."
And now I have a really tough decision to make.
Woman: Come back and see us sometime!
-Merry Christmas! -Bye!
Taniya: Yay! Merry Christmas.
So fun.
[ Horn honks ] Dave: Yeah!
-Good job. -She loved it.
Nate: Love it. Let's go inside, guys. Woman: Yes! Yes!
That was so amazing. Come on. Let's get you warm.
Dave: Bedtime. Yeah, that's right.
Oh, my goodness.
Narrator: Want to throw your Santa hat
in the ring for another season?
Apply now at abc.com/casting.
[ Electricity crackles, bells jingle ]
♪♪
[ Engine starts ]
I'm so glad you're here, Santa.
Let's get to it.
[ Ting! ]
This was a magical competition and "snow" much fun.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah!
The Loder family from Plano, Texas,
had their entire property taken over by elves,
elves, and more elves.
This is elf-tastic!
We saw how toys were made
and sweets were baked, with a larger-than-life
elf mayor overseeing it all.
Their elfish charm was truly infectious.
Let it snow!
The Perez family from Danville, California,
redefined grandma chic with a display
so bright, it looked like it like it was snowing lights.
That's my goal -- to have everything I can
packed very tightly with lights.
Terri used everyday household and gardening items
to come up with some real DIY genius.
I feel like you've knitted a blanket of lights here.
Three...
Together: Two, one!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Taniya: The Plourde team from Albuquerque,
New Mexico, exemplified the word "community"
by working together to honor a true Christmas legacy.
I feel like I'm just surrounded by Christmas love right here.
Adele: That's right.
Plus, they've decked out the coolest classic cars
and had them dripping in lights.
Dave is definitely the Commander of Christmas
and we all salute him.
Whoo!
I am so excited! This is it right here.
And now I have a little something from Santa
to brighten one family's night.
♪♪
Okay. Hit it, Santa.
[ "Jingle Bells" plays ]
Thanks for the ride. Merry Christmas.
♪♪
Melissa: Taniya's out there. Oh, my God, I'm gonna cry.
She's messing with us. Are you messing with us?
David: Oh, my God. Hi, Melissa.
Hi, David. Taniya!
Oh! How are you?
Wait. Don't even come here.
Just go in and get your family.
Want to meet me at the entrance of Elf Town?
Yes. Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. I'm gonna cry.
You guys, come on. It's Miss Taniya.
Come on. Come on, guys!
-Yay! -Yay!
-Hi! -Hey!
We're so excited to see you. So excited to see you.
Yes! Come here. Give me a hug.
Oh, this is amazing. Oh.
Hi, you guys.
Oh, I'm so excited you're here.
It's been a busy, busy day in Elf Town? It's been busy.
Got the toys running.
We got lots of requests for the Taniya Express.
Oh, yeah. Good, good. I like that.
So the Taniya Express is in production.
You know what?
I think that it's actually pretty elf-explanatory
why I had to come back here to Elf Town.
I mean, you guys, this is just so adorable.
And you've definitely all made my "nice" list.
So with that said...
you guys are the champions
of "The Great Christmas Light Fight"!
[ Group cheering ]
And the $50,000 is yours.
David: Oh, my gosh!
Yes, yes, yes!
There's so many reasons why I was just in love with Elf Town.
Elf Town offers a little something for everybody.
Exactly. Also the execution.
It is so beautifully done.
The entire display was nothing short of elf-tastic,
but I was thinking one thing --
You may have to make a little house for this.
Hold on.
[ Chuckles ]
We're gonna have to make a new building for this.
I think so.
It'll be, like, the Elf Town Museum.
There you go. Elf Town Museum.
I think I heard "Elf Town Museum."
Elf Town Museum, yes. And I love the way that sounds.
Well, then I guess it wouldn't be a "Light Fight" museum
in Elf Town if you did not have...this!
[ Laughing ] Oh!
You know what makes it extra-special?
Boom! Oh.
Yay! Guys, our favorite.
-All right! -Hold it up.
Whoo-hoo! Yeah!
[ Cheers and applause ]
So how do you feel? That is so awesome.
Oh, my goodness. On top of the world.
I am just speechless...
I know. ...which is unusual.
[ Laughter ]
This is fantastic. Oh.
Aww. Oh! Thank you.
You know what?
I feel like I just won a prize right now with that hug.
Thank you. [ Laughs ]
I actually think it would be so fun to celebrate
with a toast over at the tavern. Shall we?
Absolutely. Let's do. Yeah? All right, let's go.
-All right. -Come on.
Melissa: Winning "The Great Christmas Light Fight"
is beyond our expectations.
We feel so validated and I just can't sit still.
It's like, the elf in me wants to come out.
Cheers to the champions.
-Champions! -Champions!
[ Group cheering ]
Woman: Cheers.
-Mm-mm-mmm. -Mmm.
David: Mmm. Good.
The sweet taste of victory.
Absolutely.
-"Elf" for the win! -"Elf" for the win!
-Elf-tastic!
Melissa: Elf-tastic!
-- Captions by VITAC --
♪♪