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GONNA ROCK DOWN TO electric avenue TV takes a shining to Richmond's 'Tacky Lights Tour'

December 15, 2006 12:50 am

GLEN ALLEN--Just a few lights on the bushes. That's all Esther Thompson wanted. Her husband, Al, complied without much enthusiasm.

In all the years they lived in the Fredericksburg area--from 1973 to 1993--the Thompsons never went for outdoor Christmas decorating.

Several years after the couple moved to Henrico County, though, they took a Christmas-season limo trip to enjoy the Richmond phenomenon known as the "Tacky Lights Tour." It's a competition of sorts, in which Richmond-area residents vie for the brightest, gaudiest and most over-the-top outdoor displays.

After that limo ride, Esther Thompson made her innocent comment about lights on the bushes.

She might have predicted that her husband wouldn't stop at a few lights. After all, Al Thompson had taken every earlier hobby to the outer limits of possibility.

In the Fredericksburg years it was paddling, a passion that prompted Al Thompson to ride over the Rappahannock River's former Embrey Dam in a canoe. On purpose.

Later there was the NASCAR thing. The Redskins thing. The Las Vegas thing.

And now it's the Christmas thing.

The lack of enthusiasm Thompson felt that first year evaporated as he imagined new decorations and new ways to make everything work. It became a hobby that borders on obsession.

This year, the Thompsons have one of the most lavishly decorated homes on Richmond's Tacky Lights Tour, with 170,000 lights and more than 150 handmade painted and lighted decorations.

The home's seasonal glow caught the attention of producers at The Learning Channel, which is featuring the Thompsons prominently in a special called "Crazy Christmas Lights." It's being shown twice more this season--tomorrow and on Christmas Eve.

Thompson, 60, has designed, engineered and built nearly all the decorations in just the past three years. He and his wife have no children, but they do have two full-time jobs and many neighborly and civic commitments in Glen Allen's Kingston subdivision.

Masterminding the display is another full-time job for Thompson.

"I do this Christmas thing year round," he said.

Each year, the decorating begins in September. The couple and the occasional volunteer neighbor do a bit each day through October and November.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the lighting begins. The Thompsons have sunk $4,000 into electrical upgrades that support 40 breakers, 80 plugs and 400 extension cords. Their electricity bill runs about $1,000 above average during the holidays.

Then there's the candy-cane bill. Thompson buys them by the case, and during Tacky Tour season he and Esther give out about 5,000. It's not just kids who partake--Richmond's grown-up Tacky Tourists make the rounds in vans, limos and full-size tour buses, turning light-gazing into a big party.

Thompson tries to greet every carload, and he keeps an eye out to make sure no tipsy passengers tumble into the lollipop fence.

The lights are on each night, except when it's raining, until New Year's Eve.

Undecorating starts Jan. 1 and can take all month.

Al Thompson has designed everything to be storable in the couple's Cape Cod home--in the attic, under beds and in an unused bathtub downstairs.

So far, everything fits. But Thompson keeps on building.

From February through September, he makes detailed sketches, seeks materials, solves engineering problems and then cuts, paints, drills and electrifies. He builds each piece to withstand high winds, and he's proud that his decorations have withstood a nor'easter or two.

He catalogues every detail of each decoration in a white vinyl three-ring binder. It's jammed with ideas for decorations he hopes to get to in time.

For next year, he's doing painted, lighted plywood cutouts of Santa's reindeer, with Rudolph the biggest.

Where it will fit on the Thompsons' smallish subdivision lot is a problem he'll relish solving.

Decorating is an intellectual challenge, and it fills Al Thompson's need to push limits.

"If you know me, you know I give 110 percent," he said. "I do everything to the absolute extreme."

To reach LAURA MOYER: 540/374-5417
Email: lmoyer@freelancestar.com