Butch and Barbara Colby are the Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus of Columbia's Owen Brown village.
When they turn on the 22,000-bulb Christmas display outside their home every evening, the couple delight neighborhood children and create their own mini-traffic jam.
"A lot of people come to see this. Some come from as far away as Pennsylvania," said Mr. Colby, 51, who has been decorating his home for 16 years. "If we ever decided to quit doing this, I think we'd have to move out of this house, because so many people expect it every year."
Several years ago, a pilot flying a small plane over Columbia noticed the Colbys' lights and, after landing, drove through the community until he found the couple's home in the 6400 block of Deep Calm Court.
"People come back year after year, and they always want to know what we've added," said Mrs. Colby, 52. This year's newest attraction is a hand-crafted home for Santa and Mrs. Claus, complete with dolls of them fast asleep in a bed.
It's not an easy or cheap task for the Colbys to create what easily can be called the most decorated spot in Howard County -- save the "Symphony of Lights" display in Columbia's Town Center.
The job begins as soon as Christmas ends, with Mr. Colby looking for discounted seasonal items that might make the perfect addition for the following year's display.
"If you buy it right after Christmas, it's a little cheaper," Mr. Colby said.
And saving money on the props becomes important for the Colbys: Their electric bill last December was about $250 higher
than those for other winter months.
'He really loves doing this'
"The bill's not that bad. He really loves doing this, so it's worth it," Mrs. Colby said of her husband's Christmas passion.
Come September, Mr. Colby begins his serious planning for the Christmas season.
Using skills from his work as vice president of S3 Technologies -- a Columbia-based company that builds simulators for power plant operators -- Mr. Colby has plotted every element of the display on his home computer, from a Nativity scene in the front yard to the strands of lights strung across the family's huge evergreens.
"With five truckloads of stuff, it would be a nightmare to try to sort all of the items if I didn't have everything labeled for the following year," Mr. Colby said.
The task of setting up the display begins in mid-November and doesn't end until early December, taking the Colbys and whoever else wants to help about eight days.
North Pole railroad
Neighbors and friends traditionally join in the decorating, from climbing ladders to stringing lights on the chimney to laying out the tracks for Santa's North Pole railroad.
"I helped put out hay in the small houses," Tyler Guzzo, 5, said proudly as he looked at the display from his house across the street.
Traditionally, they reserve the first Saturday of December for their annual lighting ceremony, featuring Santa and Mrs. Claus delivered by a fire engine from the Savage Volunteer Fire Department.
At the request of the Colbys, the more than 300 people who attended this year's event brought toys that were donated to the Salvation Army for distribution throughout the county.
Throughout December, hundreds of cars slowly drive past their home. Other decorated homes in the neighborhood pale in comparison.
The Colbys have had occasional problems with vandals -- including the theft of a wooden sleigh and team of reindeer several years ago -- this year has been trouble-free. Neighbors keep an eye on the display.
Does Santa live there?
Many of the children who walk by the home wonder whether Santa and Mrs. Claus live there, said Mrs. Colby, a secretary at nearby Dasher Green Elementary School. Several children have left notes for Santa on their doorstep Christmas Eve.
"All the kids who live around here know me through school, and they all know about our lights. That's all they can talk about when they see me during this month," she said.
The couple credit their love for children with motivating them to continue decorating the house year after year. With their eldest son married and their youngest in his junior year of college, they say that seeing the joy in other youngsters' faces makes their effort worthwhile.
"When I was a kid back in Minnesota, my uncle used to decorate his house, and I remember how much I loved that. So I wanted to do that for our kids and other kids living around here," Mr. Colby said. "When we moved here, I started out by stringing some lights on the house, and now it has turned into more and more."
Despite the bright lights from early December until New Year's Day, the Colbys say, they have never heard a complaint from neighbors.