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MILFORD – The stakes are high, and the bigger and brighter the holiday lights and decorations are that they can find, the happier two Milford neighbors say they are.
This year, the loser of their friendly holiday decorating competition has to shovel out the barn for the rest of the year.
In a style similar to that of Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor from the sitcom “Home Improvement,” Milford residents Shawn Ouellette and Rod Mitchell have taken decorating their homes for Christmas to the extreme.
What began as a fierce competition is now a friendly rivalry.
Sitting at Ouellette’s dining room table, the two men joked Friday night about who was better at decorating and who had the most lights.
“We’ll just laugh because there’s so many,” Ouellette said.
The men live on Route 2 in Milford near the Greenfield Road and run a small farm together. Altogether, they’ve strung approximately 100,000 lights this season, and, in the next couple of years, they hope to double that.
Ouellette’s front walkway is lined with candy canes and lights, and Santa peeks out of the barn next to his home.
On Mitchell’s front lawn, passers-by can enjoy twinkling white deer, trees strung with colorful lights, and a greenhouse decked out like Santa’s village.
“We kind of gave up the competition and started working together,” Ouellette said. The two grew up together in Milford and have been competing for the last four years. Each year, three friends judge the holiday lights and declare a winner.After Christmas, the two decorating buddies hit the post-holiday sales and stock up for next year.
“If I see a deal, I’ll tell him about it,” Ouellette said. “If he sees a deal, he’ll take them all before I can get there.”
Every year, they each purchase about 20,000 more lights in an attempt to outdo each other. But in the end, it’s more about the Christmas spirit than anything else.
“The biggest thing for us is watching cars stop with kids,” Mitchell said.
“That’s what it’s all about right there,” Ouellette said. “It’s not about the electric bill or the competition. It’s about the kid in everybody.”
Both men said they’ve always enjoyed the Christmas season. Ouellette has fond memories of riding around and looking at holiday lights with his father.
“I’ve always been putting up lights,” he said. When Mitchell moved in next door and began to decorate, Ouellette said, he wasn’t about to be beat.
Neither one would take a guess at this year’s winner. Mitchell came out on top last year, but Ouellette has been victorious in the past.
“Who can tell?” Mitchell said.
As for next year, they already have started their scheming.
“We need more power,” Mitchell said. With plans to extend the decorations and lights into the fields on either side of their homes, the lack of power is becoming a problem.
“We’re running out of electricity,” Mitchell said. He noted that even now a circuit breaker will blow at his house on occasion if too many appliances are on indoors while the house is lighted up.
“It takes me about five minutes to plug everything in,” Ouellette said. During the week, the lights are turned on at 4 p.m. and off at 8 p.m. On the weekends, they extend it to 10 p.m.
When it comes to the electric bill, “it jumps it up there a little bit,” Ouellette said, but the two don’t seem to care about the money and say they do it for others to enjoy.
“It’s fun. It’s a riot. I love it,” Ouellette said.
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