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Lathrop offers Lights on the Farm, neighborhood displays
LIGHTS2-11-29-09
Cars enter the tunnel leading to more than 200 Christmas scenes ,made from lights at DellOsso Farms. You can also see the displays from the DellOsso Express train. - photo by HIME ROMERO/The 209

LATHROP – The colors erupt from the black LED board.

Green. Red. White. Blue.

They’re so bright that they light up the front yards of neighboring houses, and unlike the full-sized, garage-covering display of last year, this time the lights are arranged to look like a clock tower – complete with a massive working clock face illuminated right near the top.

It’s Lathrop’s Big Ben – if Big Ben was a bright Christmas display set to some of the most popular Christmas music ever written.

Yes, the house at 569 Cold Springs Street has once again outdone itself.

With a close-area FM radio broadcast showcasing songs like the iconic Charlie Brown theme song and Christmas music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the display – set right, smack-dab in the middle of a residential development – focuses less on the overall number of lights and more on what can be done with the lights that it does have.

If you’re looking for Clark Griswold, this house isn’t it. It’s minimalist approach – and the ability for those who drive by to listen to their favorite holiday tunes on FM 90.3 – is a rising trend and a stark departure from the timeless tradition of trying to cram as lights as possible onto one single dwelling.

But there are still a few in the community that rely on a burgeoning PG&E bill to show their holiday spirit.

Here are a few places to check out if you’re on the hunt for holiday lights:

•939 Long Barn Drive – Just inside of Woodfield Estates you’ll find this brightly illuminated house that blends the Griswold approach with the modern take on setting the display to music. Parking out front and tuning your car’s radio to 107.1 FM will allow you to hear the Christmas tunes that the house has synced up to the light display.

And what a display it is.

More than 40,000 lights turn the front yard of this home into a sight to behold – a bold, bright and beautiful testament to what one person can do to illuminate the holiday for all to see.

Not one to miss.

•17811 Golden Spike Drive – This house, with it’s bright blue tree, stands out among a cluster of home that have all gotten in the holiday spirit and gone above-and-beyond the light standard.

And the fact that they’ve done it together only makes it better.

There’s nothing that blows you away when you look at it. Surely somebody spent some time putting the lights out – the blow-up airplane along the front walk is a nice touch – and it’s great to look at. But it’s when neighbors get into the spirit of the season together that you’re really able to enjoy the time that somebody has invested.

•Lights on the Farm (Dell’Osso Farms) – There are lights. There’s music. And there are 200 individual displays – most of them custom made – that display some of the more unique attractions that have turned this roadside attraction into one of the more popular destinations in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

For $10 per passenger vehicle, (or $3 per person o the Dell’Osso Express train)  you are able to make the loop from one end of the farm to the other – beneath canopies of lights and along massive displays that showcase the history and the tradition of Dell’Osso Farms off Interstate 5 as well as timeless Christmas images that are detailed and beautiful.

An open air hayride for $5 per person is also available for those willing to brave the elements.

You don’t get the chance to see something like this every day.

 Hours are Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. through Jan. 1. For  more information on other attractions such as snow tubing and ice skating go to www.holidaysonthegarm.com