Something about this year put me on a mission to see as many Christmas lights as I could. Maybe it was binge-watching “Great Christmas Light Fight,” or maybe something about this year didn’t feel as magical as last year. Sure, I could’ve driven around my neighborhood, but instead, I went to a Guinness record-holding Christmas display.
The ERDAJT Holiday Christmas Display is in LaGrangeville, NY (about 1.5 hours from Albany), and is the 2012 and 2014 Guinness record-holders for the most lights on a residential property. ERDAJT is named after the Gay family children Emily Raejean (ER), Daniel Arthur (DA) and John Timothy (JT). In 2014, their world record was for 601, 736 lights on their property. In 1995, Tim Gay began the tradition to light up their property for his children. It started growing in 2003. They gained international attention and even started a friendly competition with a family in Australia. The rest is history.
The ERDAJT Holiday Christmas Display is done for 2022. They usually stop it a few days before Christmas in order to be able to celebrate the holidays together. The lights run from after Thanksgiving starting at 4:45 p.m. daily until 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 9:30 p.m. on Sunday – Thursday the week of Christmas. Each night, the family collects money for a particular charity that they announce on a calendar. The night we went, the money went toward the Alzheimer’s Association (and they do accept Venmo).
The house is on a residential road at an actual residence so there’s no parking and getting out and they like to keep the traffic moving. The house itself is down a few backroads so be weary when you’re coming at night but you can’t miss it when you get close, that’s for sure! There aren’t any signs leading up to the house but there is a sign directing you to the entrance once you get there, and telling you to turn on 95.3FM for the soundtrack.
Overall, the drive is very quick and we didn’t have anyone else around us. It’s just a quick circle around this residential property but the amount of lights they have is truly amazing. Especially when it’s just a family doing this for the love of the art of it. There are even spots where you can look deeper into their property for more lights – it really is incredible.
It’s tough to take photos while you’re moving and take in everything so, just put down your phones and look around so you don’t miss a single bulb!
