Walking in a winter wonderland

Every year, for the last 25 years, Sheri and Dennis Mickelberry have created a winter wonderland at their home just south of Flaming Geyser State Park.

Their holiday display is part-electric light show, part engineering workshop, part arts-and-crafts display, with many whimsical Christmas decorations hand-crafted by the family.

“I use lawnmower parts, bicycle parts, that’s a table saw mechanism up there in the Grinch,” Dennis said. “I try to use anything I can find.”

Take Santa’s elves, for example, made from papier-mâché — one even has its hand rigged to a moving wire that makes him hammer a toy into shape.

Or stroll down to the candy shop hut where Santa and Mrs. Claus are sharing a kiss. The Mickelberries built that hut and used emptied-out food containers, covered in diamond dust and spray paint, to make a roof that looks like Dots candy on a gingerbread house.

A working miniature Ferris Wheel is put together with both old-fashioned and new-fangled technology: “My son has a 3D printer, and he printed the spokes to make it lighter, and he printed the gears (to be) more precise,” Dennis said.

Putting the stuff up — and taking it down — is a multi-month affair.

“We start in October,” Dennis said. “It’s four to six hours a day. Not every day, but I try not to do it when it’s really pouring down. … (And) it takes us about a month to put it away.”

Among the countless decorations are a helicopter-piloting Santa flying over the yard, fruit trees adorned in a rainbow of lights, and a large furry reindeer the Mickelberries “had to have” after seeing it online. (They even built a stable for it.)

And it’s growing every year, as they upgrade or augment their displays and get donated lights and extension cords from friends. In the summer, they figure out which new additions will join the display, Sheri said — their ultimate goal is to add a train that runs around the whole front yard.

In the meantime, Sheri helps them save a lot of money by meticulously saving the working lights and paring down those they don’t need, Dennis said.

“We just keep finding stuff, and we say, ‘Oh, that’s gotta be something we want,’ ” he said. “We threw away 70, 80 sets of lights this year, and of course we have to replace them. And like I said, (we go) ‘Oh, let’s get some more lights!’ “

How many lights do they have? “We stopped counting at 90,000,” Dennis said. “We had 84,000 last year, but we’re well over 90,000 (now).”

How much does it add to their energy bill? “We don’t talk much about that,” Dennis said with a smile. “It is several hundred dollars more, but it’s helped having LED lights.”

The Mickelberries are self-professed “Christmas freaks,” Sheri said: “Whether anybody even came and saw it, we’d still be putting up everything.”

“We’re obsessed. It’s an obsession. It’s a disease, I think,” Dennis joked with a chuckle.

Dennis is a retired Boeing computer programmer, and says he got his interest in making things from his father, who was a machinist at Boeing. Sheri was an Enumclaw School District bus driver for more than 20 years. Their kids used to help put out the Christmas display, but they’ve since moved out and the couple now run the show themselves.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started three years ago, they began posting about the light show on local community Facebook groups.

“We figured everybody was trapped inside, and needed something to brighten everything up a little bit, so that’s why we put it out on Facebook,” Sheri said.

So the lights are more than just a pretty sight for the family — they’re a way of spreading the Christmas spirit far and wide.

“It’s pretty exciting, especially to hear the little kids come,” Dennis said. “But the best part I like is when the 95-year-old kids come out. We had one lady two years ago who could barely walk, she was helped around the yard, but she was determined to see everything. And she just kept saying how fabulous it was. That was really special.”

The display will be on until around Jan. 5, dependent on the weather, at 24900 Southeast 380th Street. The lights are on from 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. The property is on a dirt road, so drive slow, be aware of road hazards, and be considerate of the neighbors.

A glowing reindeer stands amidst a technicolor forest of lights adorning the apple, pear and plum trees in the Mickelberry front yard. “This is kind of my favorite, this part,” Dennis Mickelberry said.